Through the Years, Season 4: The Sinnoh League
by Evanibble
Summary: Upon his defeat in the quarterfinals in the Ever Grande Conference in Hoenn, 20-year old Niko travels to the Sinnoh region to continue his journey to become a Pokémon Master. This is a story of his adventures through the region with his friends, Brittany and JJ. Enjoy!
1. The Lake of Truth

**Author's Note: Here we are, folks! Season 4 of Through the Years! Like I said in the last episode, there's a lot in store for our three protagonists. Sinnoh will certainly test them in new ways, and it will be interesting to see how they react. Here's the premiere, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

 **Episode 1: The lake of truth**

 _The Sinnoh region…_ Niko thought as he looked out on the vast expanse of ocean that divided the boat he was standing on from his next destination. Days previously, he and his two friends, Brittany and JJ, decided to leave their home region of Kanto once again to travel in another unknown land. There, Niko hoped to continue his pokémon training by defeating the gym leaders of Sinnoh and compete in the annual Pokémon League held in the spring.

 _I wonder what we'll see here. If its anything like Hoenn, it'll certainly be…_ Niko paused, trying to think of the right word. Shaking his head, he tried to think about other matters. Once they got to Sandgem Town, where Sinnoh's regional professor, Rowan, lived, Niko hoped to register for the Sinnoh League and hopefully get some more information on battling in the region. Beyond that, he had no idea what their journey would look like. He then felt a pang in his stomach, which was his body's way of reminding him of his motion sickness. "I hate this," He muttered before turning back around and walking down to the lower level of the boat, where JJ and Brittany were residing.

"Hey Niko," JJ said casually, playing cards with his umbreon. The moonlight pokémon had gotten used to the types of games its trainer played, and was a quick learner. Upon being beaten once again by his pokémon, JJ looked up at the dark type and smiled with pride while ruffling the curly blonde hair he had grown out over the previous summer.

JJ was one of Niko's friends from school. On the day Niko and their mutual friend, Fay, decided to leave on their journey, JJ spontaneously decided to join them. With his first pokémon—eevee—he originally set his eyes on Kanto's gym challenge. After losing to Brock, the Pewter City Gym Leader, JJ quit the gym challenge and simply set his eyes on travelling with his friends and seeing the world. Over the course of their journey, he flitted with the idea of being a pokémon breeder after successfully raising his growlithe from an egg. After meeting with a beautiful young girl named Maizie in the Johto region, JJ fully committed himself to becoming a pokémon breeder.

It was only during his travels in Hoenn did JJ deviate at all from his dream. He participated in Pokémon Contests, which are a type of competition that combine battling with the style of a pokémon's moveset. He was hardly successful at it compared to his friend Brittany, but he nonetheless enjoyed the experience and the opportunity to grow with his pokémon, which he sees as helpful in being a better pokémon breeder.

"Wow JJ, that's like the third time umbreon's beaten you today. You sure it isn't a psychic type?" Brittany asked, sitting with her spheal, pikachu, and tangela, which composed three of the five pokémon on her team. Brushing back some of her brunette hair, she looked up at Niko with hazel eyes and smiled. "Oh, hey Niko. You okay?" She asked as her smile turned quickly into a look of concern.

Brittany is originally from Vermilion City. On what turned out to be a fateful encounter aboard the S.S. Anne, Brittany met Niko, JJ, and Fay, and the four became fast friends, enough that once the cruise ended, Brittany decided to leave her home to travel with the three boys. Throughout much of their journey in Kanto and Johto, Brittany had no goal in mind, except for considering becoming a breeder like JJ when she received an egg that later hatched into her pichu. However, once they reached the Hoenn region, her goals changed a bit when she discovered Pokémon Contests.

On JJ's urging, Brittany entered her first contest in Slateport City, and didn't do very well. She briefly considered quitting it, but Niko, JJ, and Jake—Niko's younger brother—convinced her otherwise, and she continued, competing in a total of six contests and earning for herself three contest ribbons, which allowed her to compete in the annual Grand Festival, the contest equivalent to the Pokémon League. There, Brittany competed against 167 other "coordinators" and placed in the Top 8 overall.

"Oh, I'm fine. Motion sickness again," Niko said as he sat down on his sleeping bag. The lower level of the boat was relatively cramped for three people, but they made it work. It wouldn't be much longer before they reached Sandgem Town.

"So, have we thought about what we'll do first?" JJ asked, looking at Niko for direction. During their adventure in Hoenn, Niko became the decisionmaker between the four of them, for whatever reason. JJ generally was the navigator of the group, and would always estimate the distance they would need to traverse between cities. Brittany worried more about the logistics of their travels—such as supplies. They seemed to make it work, and couldn't imagine any other arrangement.

"Well, we should see Professor Rowan. I would like to get an idea of where we should start our travels. And I'll also need to go out and catch a pokémon."

Niko, for the second time, chose to travel "alone"—i.e., without any of his previous pokémon on hand—like he had done in Hoenn. Generally, he got a pokémon from the regional professor, as he had done in Kanto with Professor Oak, Johto with Professor Elm, and Hoenn with Professor Birch. But he couldn't assume that the same would be true for Professor Rowan, and so considered catching a pokémon of his own this time.

"That's true. You can borrow one of mine if you need to," JJ said, turning to umbreon who nodded in agreement. Having travelled for so long with Niko, all of JJ's pokémon respected the tall, brown-haired, blue-eyed trainer, and the same went for all of Niko's pokémon.

"Thanks, JJ," Niko said with a sincere smile, "I'll keep that in mind."

They continued talking for a bit—with Niko saying considerably less than he normally would, partially due to the nausea he was feeling—before the boat's captain popped his head into their room and said they had landed in Sandgem Town.

"Great," Niko said, slowly standing back up and packing his things before climbing up to the deck. The first thing he saw was a beach with a road to the north that presumably would take him to Sandgem Town. He, JJ, and Brittany all got off the boat, thanked their captain, and turned to face the Sinnoh region.

"We're here," JJ said, patting Niko on the shoulder. The pokémon trainer nodded and led the three of them down the path ahead.

Sandgem Town was relatively small, about the same size at New Bark Town in Johto, but smaller than Pallet Town and certainly smaller than Littleroot Town. The three walked through the town until they saw a large, cylindrical-shaped building with a windmill behind it. Figuring that it was the lab, they approached the gate that separated it from the rest of the town and entered.

The inside of the lab was incredible. The ceiling was high-set with long-arching windows of varying sizes running along the walls. On the ground-floor, there was a set of machines on one end of the main room with a living-room style setup in the middle. Niko looked around for any sign of an older-looking man, but instead found a young man approaching him. He was about JJ's height—which was a few inches shorter than Niko—with ruffled black hair and dark gray eyes. He wore black jeans and a red turtle-neck long sleeve, as if he were dressing for a trip to some snow-covered land in the near future.

"Hello, my name's Lucas. How may I help you?" He said in a calm voice.

"Hi, my name's Niko. This is JJ, and Brittany. We're here from Kanto to see Professor Rowan."

Lucas's eyes widened slightly and he replied with a silent "oh," pulling out a small notebook from his back pocket, he flipped through the pages until he nodded. "Yep, he's definitely got an appointment with you three. Unfortunately, he's out on a visit to Lake Verity right now, and won't be back for some time. Blast it, Rowan always does this!"

"Well, how far is Lake Verity?" JJ asked. "We could just meet him there."

Lucas nodded at the suggestion. "Yes, that'd work. Lake Verity is about an hour west of here. Do you guys have a map?" The three of them shook their heads. "No worries, let me grab one for you," Lucas then ran up a set of stairs behind him and came back down minutes later, panting but holding on to a scroll of paper. "We don't use paper maps much anymore, as we've moved to Pokétch technology, but we still have plenty of them. Here," Lucas handed JJ the map, and the three leaned over to look at it.

The Sinnoh region was magnificent looking. It was akin to a crude drawing of a triangle, with a large growth of land on its western edge. There was also a massive landmass to the northeast that looked almost like a two-pronged fork. Lucas pointed down in the southwestern region.

"We're right here, Sandgem Town. To the southwest of us is Twinleaf Town, and to the west is Lake Verity. You just had to walk down route 201 and you'll get there in an hour or so."

"Wow, thanks Lucas!" Niko said, shaking the boy's hand. "We'll return this when we get back."

"Psh, don't worry about it. We've got plenty," Lucas said passively. "Anyways, go find Rowan."

The three nodded, and then set off west in the direction shown to them. As they walked through the forested route 201, they saw a host of pokémon they've never seen before. One of them looked like a beaver with its large teeth and small tufts of fur for a tail that almost resembled a baby beaver. They were gathered along the edge of a river in small groups. They would also see small black and gray-feathers birds engaging with larger birds that bore similar feather colors. They eyed Niko and his friends warily as they passed, but didn't feel the need to attack.

 _I wish I had a pokédex so I could at least know what these pokémon are…_ Niko thought to himself. _Hopefully Rowan has some._

They eventually reached a path through the trees that looked to be man-made. Walking through they eventually saw a small lake with an even smaller island in the middle. Sitting on the edge of the lake was a gray-haired man in a lab coat overlooking the lake. Upon the trainer's arrival to the lake, he turned to look at them.

"Oh, hello there. Here to visit the lake, too?" He asked in a gruff, but kind, voice.

"Actually, professor, we're here to see you," Niko said. Rowan looked curiously at the three trainers approaching him. "My name is Niko, this is JJ, and this is Brittany. We're from Kanto."

"Ah! You're the youngsters Oak told me about! Welcome!" Rowan said, holding out his hand to shake Niko's, JJ's, and Brittany's. "My apologies for not being present at my lab. You see, I often come to Lake Verity here as a means of relaxing. You three are not familiar with Sinnoh, I assume?" They shook their heads. "Very well. Sinnoh is well known for its myths, similar to Johto. There are three major lakes in the Sinnoh region—Lake Valor, Lake Acuity, and Lake Verity. Each are the home to guardian pokémon—Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit, each of whom are tied to the creation of the Pokémon world. Here, the guardian is Mesprit, who is known as the Being of Emotion, hence the name of the lake.

"I mention this because it is important to understand the history of the places you visit, so you can better appreciate the travels you undertake. Oak told me about you three. You've been to many regions of the world, so this sort of explanation should be familiar to you. And plus, I always find it fascinating to learn about history and how I can relate it to my everyday life, in addition to impressing its importance on the next generation."

Niko looked out at the lake, which resembled a pond, if anything else. _The Being of Emotion…Mesprit. I wonder what kind of abilities it has_.

"Anyways, we should get back to Sandgem Town. There's a few things I'd like to go over with you before you begin your journey."

* * *

Back at the lab, Rowan sat down on one of the couches on the ground floor opposite Niko, JJ, and Brittany. "So," He began, "From what I know of you three, you each have a different goal in Mind. JJ, you aspire to be a pokémon breeder, yes?"

"I do, sir," JJ said curtly.

"Interesting profession, it is. It requires a lot of patience, more than most other disciplines. It's much like research—you won't get immediate results on anything. Breeding and raising pokémon takes time, much like any research project. Now, Brittany, you were a coordinator in Hoenn, yes?" Brittany nodded. "I see. We have contests here in Sinnoh, and I certainly encourage you to enter them. However, I warn you that they are different than in Hoenn, which you'll soon find out, I'm sure. In fact, there's a contest being held in Jubilife City in a few days, if you're interested."

"Thanks, Professor, I'll keep that in mind," Brittany said with a kind smile.

"And now…Niko," Rowan's glaring, but friendly, eyes turned to the third trainer sitting across from him. "Oak had the most to say about you. You've competed in three Pokémon Leagues, correct?" Niko nodded. "That is certainly impressive. I knew a trainer once who competed in every league he could find. Needless to say, he's done well for himself. Do you intend on competing in the Sinnoh League?"

"Yes, I do," Niko said with another nod.

"Alright then. As part of my job, I get trainers started on their journeys. You're already quite aware of this, I believe," Rowan then stood up and walked over to the end of the room with the machines, and picked up a series of objects. "I have a few things for the each of you. First, your pokédexes. They have information on all of the pokémon you might encounter in the Sinnoh region. I usually ask for trainers to go out and help me collect data on pokémon, but it is my understanding that this is not your priority. However, if you find something unique or exciting, please feel free to give me a call or show me next time we meet."

Rowan handed the three trainers their new pokédexes. Like usual, they were a sleek red color with a directional pad on the left, a sensor of sorts on the right and a display screen in the middle. Rowan then handed Niko a new badge case.

"I'm sure you'll be needing one of these, so I thought I'd procure one for you."

"Thank you, Professor," Niko said, looking at the sleek new badge case with a gray and black pokéball in the center. Rowan then reached into his bag and pulled out two pokéballs.

"So, Oak also made me aware of the fact that you didn't bring any of your previous pokémon with you, Niko," Rowan said, placing the pokéballs in the center of the table. "And so, I'm giving you the option of taking one of the traditional Sinnoh starter pokémon with you. I would normally have three, but I have not yet had the chance to obtain a third one, as a trainer just left with it a few days ago."

"What kind of pokémon are in them?" Niko asked.

"Ah, yes, you should probably know that first," Rowan said with a chuckle. He picked up the pokéballs, walked behind the couch into an open space, and released them. Out of the pokéballs came a small monkey-like creature with a fireball for a tail and a light green turtle-like pokémon with a small seedling growing on the top of its head. On its back lay a soft brown and black shell.

"Here we have our traditional fire starter, chimchar, and our traditional grass starter, turtwig," Rowan said. Niko got on one knee to observe the two before instantly making a choice.

"Turtwig," Niko said, looking back up at Rowan. "I choose turtwig."

"That was fast," Rowan said, impressed. He returned chimchar to its pokéball. "Very well, turtwig is yours."

Niko pat the top of turtwig's head. "Hello there. My name is Niko, and I'm your new trainer. Will you go on my journey with me?"

The tiny lead pokémon nodded shyly. Niko silently laughed before petting turtwig again. He stood back up and took the pokéball from Rowan before returning turtwig to it.

"Also, since you're challenging the gyms here, I would recommend starting in Oreburgh City. The gym leader—Roark—is a kind young man, but he will provide enough of a challenge for you, I believe. Also, it's not far from Jubilife, either, just a couple days east."

"Thank you for everything, Rowan," Niko said before shaking the professor's hand. Rowan returned it with a sincere smile as Brittany and JJ did the same.

"It's my pleasure. Best of luck to the three of you—you'll need it."

Niko, Brittany, and JJ departed the lab as the afternoon sun began to lower itself into the forest to the west. Looking at each other, they nodded and set off north towards their first destination—Jubilife City!


	2. Scampy shinx!

**Episode 2: Scampy shinx!**

After their visit to Professor Rowan's lab in Sandgem Town, the group headed north to Jubilife City, where Brittany would compete for her first Sinnoh contest ribbon. According to the map that Rowan's assistant, Lucas, gave them, it would take only a day or two to make it to the city, depending on how fast they walked. This gave Brittany and her pokémon enough time to practice, at least a little bit.

She was hoping to use spheal for the next contest, but figured it best to get all of her pokémon reacclimated to the contest training she worked on with them in Hoenn. Over the past summer, she would occasionally train with her five pokémon, but they generally spent their time playing or helping Brittany with some chores around her house in Vermilion City. But nevertheless, her pokémon were excited about the prospects of entering contests once again, particularly spheal, who had only gotten a taste of the contest life during the Grand Festival.

Niko, on the other hand, spent his time trying to get to know his new pokémon, turtwig. The tiny leaf pokémon, he quickly found out, was a rather shy creature, much unlike the other pokémon he received at the start of his journey. On their first night in Sinnoh, the three set up a campfire on route 202, and Niko sat down with turtwig to get to know it.

"Hey, turtwig," Niko said, trying to make small talk with the grass type. "Have you ever battled before?" Turtwig looked up at Niko curiously before shaking its head. "No worries, then! Would you like to try?"

Turtwig, figuring it had nothing better to do, nodded and stood up on its four legs before following Niko into a clearing. The trainer motioned for JJ to join him, and the curly blonde young man brought his marill with him, figuring that giving turtwig the advantage might help it learn how to battle a little easier.

"Alright turtwig, our goal is to defeat marill over there, got it?" Niko said decisively. Turtwig turned its head around and looked at Niko with a curious stare before nervously looking back at the aqua mouse pokémon. "Let's see what you can do, buddy! Use tackle!"

Turtwig rushed towards marill as fast as it could, but it was still too slow for the water type, who edged out of the way and shot a water gun at turtwig's side, causing it to fly a few inches off of the ground and onto its side. Marill stood there as turtwig tried to get back up. Eventually, it did, but didn't look happy. Suddenly, the seedling on its head began to glow a bright green color, and marill started yelping out loud.

"Marill! Are you alright?" JJ shouted out. "Niko, what's turtwig doing?"

"I think that's absorb…" Niko said with a shrug.

"It definitely is," Brittany said, waving her hand so Niko and JJ noticed her. "Turtwig can learn absorb and tackle."

"Anything else?" Niko asked.

"Well, of course. It can learn razor leaf, but I think it might be too young to know that."

Niko nodded. "Absorb will do. Great job, turtwig! Keep it up!" The tiny leaf pokémon then stopped sapping marill of its energy and proceeded to run at it, slamming its rather large head into marill's spherical body, causing it to roll backwards through the grass and dirt. "Yes! Let's keep going, turtwig! Tackle again!"

"Marill, water gun!" JJ commanded. The aquamouse shot out another strong burst of water at turtwig, who just ran through it as fast as possible, until its legs gave in and the tiny leaf pokémon collapsed on its side from the force of the attack.

"Turtwig, get up! Use absorb!" Niko shouted. The tiny leaf pokémon tried getting back up, but the water gun was too much for it. Exhausted, turtwig was defeated.

"Good job, Niko, turtwig," JJ said as he picked up marill, who was also exhausted, albeit not as much though.

"Yeah, thanks JJ. I appreciated the battle. Hopefully turtwig did, too," Niko said as he sat down next to turtwig, who was just not getting back up. Turtwig sat on its hind legs next to Niko. "You did good out there. It was your first battle, and you stood up to your opponent and didn't run away. You know, turtwig, my Dad would always tell me that 'showing up is half the battle.' You showed up, and that's what matters in the end."

Turtwig nodded, seeming to understand what Niko was saying. It looked around at JJ, marill, and Brittany and her pokémon. All of them nodded and smiled as well.

"You've got a lot of people and pokémon that want to see you get stronger. That's why I brought you on this journey: so we can do it together. It's going to be _really_ hard, and we might lose once or twice, but we can definitely win."

Turtwig's mood lightened up a little. It nodded, and leaned its body against Niko.

"Alright, let's go eat. I'm pretty hungry," Niko said, standing up and walking over to Brittany, who was trying to work with spheal on learning aurora beam, hoping that she can combine it with ice ball or even powder snow. The ball pokémon seemed to be having difficulty summoning the energy to launch the attack. On the few occasions where it did muster the strength, it nearly hit JJ or a random passerby. Eventually they stopped working on the move and instead began to cook dinner.

While Niko and JJ were making some food—just a simple sandwich and fruit—the former learned of turtwig's diet, which was just berries and leaves. Niko, eying his own food, plucked out a red berry and handed it to turtwig.

"Here, want it?" Niko asked. Turtwig looked up at its trainer, and then down at the berry in his palm. Turtwig nodded and ate the berry quickly, being careful to not bite Niko on accident. It then finished its own food and went to sleep on a bed of leaves at the base of a tree. Smiling, Niko turned back to Brittany and JJ, who were busy eating.

The three sat in silence for the next several minutes or so, each reflecting on the day's events. When they had woken up, it was on a cramped boat in the middle of the sea. Now, they were in the Sinnoh region and had a destination in mind. For Niko, at least, it was hard to believe.

"What a day," JJ finally said, expressing each of their feelings in three simple words. "Can you believe it? We're at this again."

"I can," Brittany said with a grin. "It's always fun to travel with friends, right?"

Niko nodded. "Of course. I wonder how this adventure will be different from the others."

"What do you mean?" Brittany asked.

"Like, who we meet, what kind of pokémon we find, what lessons we'll learn? If you think about it, we've done all of those things in Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn. We met you in Kanto, people like Maizie and Norman in Johto, and Steven, Wally, and Melinda in Hoenn. We've met countless pokémon and I, at least, have learned something on every journey we go on. And I'm almost positive both of you have."

"You're right, Niko," JJ said, pondering the thought. "I don't know what we'll see or who we'll meet, but that's what makes it all exciting, right?"

"Yeah!" Niko said, feeling on top of the world. "And we're going to destroy the competition in our contests and battles, right Brittany?" Niko held out his fist.

"Of course we will. Top Coordinator and League Champion, right here," Brittany said, returning the fist bump.

"And I hope to learn more about pokémon breeding," JJ added. Niko and Brittany nodded happily in reply. "Meeting new pokémon will help with that, I think."

The three continued to talk for a bit before heading to bed several yards from the path they were walking along. While sleeping, Niko had another dream, this time of a young man with jet black hair slicked back with some sort of hair product. He was in a pokémon battle with another trainer several years his junior. Niko could hardly make out the pokémon on either side, but it hardly seemed to matter. Within seconds of the dream starting, the black-haired trainer's pokémon was defeated. The trainer was angry, and _kicked_ the pokémon out of frustration…

Niko woke up the following morning, unsure of where he was for a moment. Looking around, he noticed JJ and Brittany were sitting on their sleeping bags eating some sort of fruit while turtwig was walking around as a means of "waking up."

"Morning, Niko," Brittany said cheerfully. "Sleep well?"

Niko nodded, albeit a little nervously, as he sat up and rubbed his eyes wearily. _What did I see last night? That was straight-up animal abuse. And who was the trainer? Who was the pokémon? And more importantly,_ why _did I see it?_ Niko opted to not tell Brittany or JJ about his dream, and instead got out of bed and took a quick walk.

Moments later, he heard a scream that sounded much like Brittany's, and immediately turned back around to their small campsite. As he did so, a small black and blue cat-like pokémon rushed underneath his legs with a large berry in its mouth. Niko turned around to see it scamper off across the path and into the other side of the forest. Niko turned to turtwig and began running after the pokémon, the tiny leaf following closely behind.

Eventually, the two came to a halt. The little pokémon sat at the base of a tree eating the berry. "Hey!" Niko said, "What gives? That was my friend's food!"

"It's okay, Niko," Brittany placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him down. "It's probably just hungry. No worries."

Niko sighed. "Sorry, whatever you are. I just don't like thieves."

The pokémon looked up at him with yellow eyes. It was certainly a feline pokémon. Its front half was light blue and its rear was black, with a four-pointed yellow tail on the back. It had large yellow and light blue star-shaped ears and a small tuft of fur on top of its head. Curious, Niko pulled out his pokédex:

" _Shinx, the flash pokémon. Electric type. The extension and contraction of its muscles generates electricity. It glows when in trouble_."

"Shinx, eh?" Niko said aloud. "Hey, turtwig, how about you say we catch it? Or at least try to," Niko asked, figuring his new pokémon could use some more battling experience before their first gym battle in Oreburgh City. Turtwig seemed nervous about doing it, but tried to hide that from Niko in an attempt to impress him. The tiny leaf pokémon stepped forward and lowered its head as if it were going to ram shinx in the face. "Alright then! Turtwig, use tackle!"

Turtwig ran forward at the flash pokémon, but shinx managed to step out of the way, causing turtwig to slam into the base of the tree with the full force of its body. It quickly shook its head to regain its control and turned to shinx, who was charging up electricity in its fur.

"Similar to manectric…" Niko muttered to himself. _I wonder if it knows any electric moves_. "Turtwig, use absorb!"

The seedling on turtwig's head began to glow a bright green color as it sapped shinx's energy. The electric type yelled out in pain as it cringed a little. Turtwig then ran forward and slammed the side of its body into shinx, knocking it to the ground. This is when Niko pulled out a pokéball and showed it to turtwig.

"Now, we catch it!" Niko said, throwing the pokéball at shinx. The flash pokémon went into the ball and, after wiggling around a few times, made a soft "clicking" noise, signaling that Niko caught it. He walked over to the ball and crouched down, turtwig right next to him. "Looks like we have a new teammate, turtwig."

The tiny leaf pokémon nodded, feeling proud of its work. Niko stood up and looked at Brittany. "Nice job, Niko! Hopefully it meshes well with you and turtwig!"

"I hope so, too," Niko said, slightly unsure if this will work for him. He usually got to know his pokémon a little before catching it. He had no idea what this shinx was like. But, then again, he didn't for turtwig, either.

Niko, turtwig, and Brittany walked back to the camp where JJ was waiting, marill in his arms. "What took you guys so long?" Niko showed JJ the pokéball. "You caught that thing? What was it?"

"A shinx. Electric type, according to the pokédex. Although it didn't really attack, it seems fast."

"Like your other electric type. Nice, Niko," JJ said. "Now, we heading off to Jubilife? We'll probably make it today, but later in the day."

"Which means I will get there in time for the contest!" Brittany said happily. Niko and JJ nodded, and walked off with their coordinator friend towards Jubilife City, the morning sun rising up from the trees above them.


	3. Lauren

**Episode 3: Lauren**

"Hey, kid! Would you be interested in a Pokétch?" A man in a clown costume asked JJ as the three trainers were approaching Jubilife City's Pokémon Center. He held out a blue wristwatch with a blue button on the left side and two red ones on the right and a screen in the middle.

"What's a Pokétch?" JJ asked curiously.

"It's a watch, basically!" The clown, who was dressed in a yellow costume with white make up and shiny red circles on his cheeks exclaimed. Only difference from ordinary watches is that you can add apps to them! You know what an app is?"

JJ, looking slightly offended by the question, frowned and nodded. "Of course I know what an app is!"

"Just checking, kid. You'd be surprised at how often I have to explain that to people. Anyways, here, lemme show you what it can do," The clown leaned close to JJ and showed him a variety of apps on the Pokétch, including a time app, as well as a calculator, memo pad, pedometer, counter, coin toss, calendar, alarm clock, stop watch, and—JJ's personal favorite, and the one that sold him—a Day-Care Checker.

"What's that last one do?" JJ asked, looking up at the clown.

"Oh, that? Well, we've partnered with the daycare in Solaceon Town to allow trainers to get updates on the pokémon that they've left in their care. Why?"

"That's the coolest app you have on there."

"So, are you interested in buying one?"

"How much?"

"JJ!" Brittany and Niko shouted in unison. "We don't have a lot of money!"

"You kids travelling?" The clown asked, only to receive nods from all three, only with different intentions behind them. "Ah, what the hell, you can just take it. I don't get paid enough to do this job anyways…" He muttered before happily giving JJ the Pokétch and walking away. JJ then turned to his friends with a sort of smug expression as he put the watch on his wrist.

"Great JJ, now you've got a _daycare tracker_ on your wrist," Niko complained.

"It's got other features, though…" JJ said, holding the watch up to Niko's face. "See? Look at all of them!"

"Yeah yeah I get it," Niko said, shoving JJ's wrist out of his face. "Anyways, let's head off to the Pokémon Center and get some rest before tomorrow."

As they were walking into the Pokémon Center, he felt someone bump against him. "Oh, sorry," A short girl said in a rather high tone, turning only briefly to look at Niko before walking off into the city.

"Oh, no worries," Niko said as he moved out of the girl's way. Looking at Brittany and JJ, both of whom exchanged glances of surprise, he continued on into the center as the sun set behind them. They spent the next couple of hours sitting at a booth while watching JJ play around with his new watch. Niko was busy thinking about how he would start training turtwig and shinx, and Brittany was slightly nervous about her first contest the following day.

"So, Brittany," Niko asked, "You've just got to register tomorrow, right?" The brunette nodded casually at Niko's question, trying to distract herself by peering over at JJ's watch. "Now, I remember Professor Rowan saying something about contests being different here than in Hoenn. Any idea what he meant by that?"

Brittany looked at Niko from across the table and shook her head. "No idea. I'm sure I could just ask someone, though," Although, as she was looking around for someone she suspected would know about the contests in Sinnoh, Brittany found herself getting more nervous. "Never mind, I'll just figure it out tomorrow. No worries."

Niko smiled. "You're going to do just fine, Brittany," He said, placing a hand over hers. The brunette nodded, half-smiling in return.

* * *

The three of them woke up the following morning feeling well-rested, especially after having to sleep in a cramped boat or on the ground for several days. Immediately, they got some breakfast before making their way to the contest hall, which was in the center of the city.

It was during this walk that the three of them realize just how massive Jubilife City was. Buildings towered all around them, each probably the home to several national and international organizations serving a variety of purposes. It was a surprise, at least to Niko, that Jubilife City didn't have an established gym. As JJ noted from reading a brochure he found in the Pokémon Center, there was only a Trainer's School, much like Rustboro City's, but otherwise no gym.

They eventually reached the contest hall, which was a circular building with a semi-circular roof and a large red and yellow sign that read "Pokémon Contest" on it in black lettering. Walking inside, Brittany was stunned at how many coordinators there were. Niko and JJ both patted her on the shoulder and lightly pushed her in the direction of the registration desk.

"C'mon, Brittany," Niko said, "You placed in the Top 8 in Hoenn. This shouldn't make you nervous at all."

"You're right, Niko," Brittany said, putting on a brave face. "You're right," She said as she approached the front desk. "Hello, I'd like to register for contests here in Sinnoh."

"First time?" The lady asked, peering out at Brittany from behind her glasses.

"Well, technically no, but first time in Sinnoh."

"Got it. Name, hometown?"

"Brittany from Vermillion City."

"Pokédex?" The woman asked. Brittany pulled out both her Hoenn and Sinnoh pokédexes. "I only need one, honey."

"Right. Of course," Brittany pulled back the Hoenn one and placed it in her bag. Moments later a pass was given to her with her name and hometown printed on it, among other small details.

"That's your contest pass. It's really a formality nowadays, since we can just input your information into our system. Either way, you're registered for this contest and all future contests. Good luck," As she was turning around in her chair, Brittany raised her finger before speaking.

"Excuse me, I have another question," She asked rather quietly.

"Yes…?"

"What are the differences in these contests from the ones in Hoenn?" Brittany asked. The lady at the desk rolled her eyes, clearly frustrated by the question. As she opened her mouth to answer, another chimed in.

"Not much really. Just stylistic changes. All contests encourage coordinators to dress up. Also, sometimes contests will require double performances in their Battle Stage instead of just one. This one doesn't, I don't think, but you'll want to be prepared in the future if they do."

Brittany blinked twice at the girl who responded. She was a couple inches shorter than she, and wore similar clothing—blue jeans and a dark shirt, but instead had a red and white denim jacket over it. Her hair was one of her most defining features—sky blue with strips of teal scattered throughout—and long enough to go past her shoulders, and was hiding one eye.

"Oh, well, thanks. I had no idea dressing up mattered."

"It does here. There are other minor style differences, but as long as you dress in something nice, you'll be fine. Err, anyways, hi, name's Lauren. You?"

"Brittany. Nice to meet you," She replied, shaking Lauren's hand. Suddenly, she recognized her from somewhere. "Wait, you're the girl who ran into my friend last night!"

Lauren's dark eyes suddenly lit up. "Oh, right! You three! I'm really sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it," Niko interrupted as he approached the two with JJ. "Hi, I'm Niko. This is JJ. And you are?"

"Lauren," She said, shaking both of Niko's and JJ's hands. "So, are you two also entering the contest?" She said in an engaging tone.

"Oh, me?" Niko said with surprise. "Nah, I'm here to support Brittany."

"Oh, I see…" Lauren said with a wink in Niko's direction.

"No no, not like that," Niko said, pushing Lauren away. "Not even close."

"Whatever you say, Niko," Lauren said as she pushed Niko and JJ aside and walked away.

Niko sighed loudly before turning his attention back to Brittany. "Feeling better?"

"No…" Brittany said, shying away. "Apparently we're supposed to dress up."

"Well, your performances are good enough that you shouldn't have to worry about that messing up your style. And next time, we'll all make sure you look amazing!"

"'Good enough,' yeah," Brittany said, rolling her eyes, "Also, I'd never let you two find nice clothes for me."

"What do you mean by that?" JJ asked in a defensive tone.

"Well, it's not like you two are dashing young men."

"Jeans and a sweater are _just fine_!" JJ said.

"Yeah, sure JJ," Brittany said with a wink, pushing him a little before also walking in Lauren's direction, presumably to the backroom to get ready for the contest.

"What was _that_ about?" JJ asked, looking at Niko.

"It made her feel better, though," Niko replied. "C'mon, let's go get some seats before it gets too crowded in the stadium.

Sure enough, it was crowded. The Jubilife Contest was one of the biggest contest events in Sinnoh, besides the Grand Festival held annually near Lake Valor, according to the young man sitting next to them. Moments later, the center stage was bathed in light from the ceiling, and a single woman stood in the center with a microphone.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Jubilife City Pokémon Contest!" The host was a tall woman with short, tawny hair and blue eyes, although it was difficulty for Niko and JJ to tell. She wore a sleeveless red shirt to match her skirt and leggings with a sleeveless yellow coat that went down to her ankles. "I'm your host, Marian, and today we've got quite the show for you today! We have coordinators from all over Sinnoh and beyond competing with style and grace befitting a coordinator. For those unfamiliar, let me go through the different stages of a contest:

"The first round is the Performance Round. Each coordinator dresses up and enters a pokémon to perform. Occasionally, contests will require coordinators to use two pokémon in a performance. This one does not. Coordinators may use as many moves as they would like within the three-minute time limit. In the second round—the Battle Round—coordinators will face off against one another using the same pokémon from before, or a different one if they so choose to. Occasionally, like with the Performance Round, coordinators may be required to use two pokémon in a Battle Round, but this one will not. The winner of the Battle Round will be granted the Contest Ribbon. Now, without further ado, join me in welcoming our first coordinator from Vermilion City—Brittany!"

Niko and JJ clapped loudly as their friend walked onto the stage. She waved nervously before summoning spheal.

"Alright spheal, let's use ice ball!" Brittany commanded. The ball pokémon conjured a large ball of ice and balanced it atop its head, moving slightly to its left or right in order to balance it. "Now, on one flipper!"

Spheal repeated the technique, but this time by balancing on its left flipper. The three judges, one of them being Jubilife City's Nurse Joy—all looked relatively pleased with the performance. Brittany then asked spheal to balance the ice ball in the air using water gun. Here, the judges seemed more impressed, particularly with how long spheal managed to keep the ice ball in the air. Once the performance ended, Brittany nervously exited the stage and went into the backroom to watch the other two dozen coordinators perform.

What struck her the most was how literally everyone else had dressed up _except her_. "There's no way I was the only one…" She muttered to herself.

"It looks like it, though," Lauren said as she sat down next to Brittany. She too was wearing something nice—a blue and white flower dress. "But I wouldn't worry, your performance was better than some of the garbage I'm watching right now. I mean, seriously? Your bidoof can use brick break, like that's _so_ cool."

Brittany laughed a little under her breath. "Thanks, Lauren. And by the way, you look nice."

"Aw thanks! Yeah, I do like to dress up occasionally. It feels nicer to not always have to wear pants, you know?"

"Oh, definitely," Brittany said, again laughing. Moments later Lauren's name was called. "Good luck!"

"Thanks!" Lauren said as she skipped out of the backroom and onto the stage.

"And now we have Lauren from Canalave City!" Marian shouted out loud. The blue-haired trainer skipped out onto the stage and tossed a pokéball into the air, containing a haunter.

"Wow, Lauren looks like," JJ observed.

"Yeah, guess so…" Niko said casually.

"You don't think so?"

"Well, kind of. The flower dress is certainly a nice touch. Matches well with her hair."

Lauren looked at her haunter confidently. "Alight haunty, let's go! Use confuse ray!" The gas pokémon emitted small yellow orbs into the air around the stage, but before they could pursue any particular target, Lauren issued a second command. "Use shadow punch!"

With blinding speed, the haunter shot spectral fists at the floating orbs, causing each one to burst into a thousand small yellow and gold specks that eventually filled the air. Lauren raised both of her arms in the air at an angle, finishing her rather quick, but delightful, performance.

She walked into the backroom and sat down a few feet away from Brittany, sighing heavily when she sat down.

"You alright?" Brittany asked.

"Oh, yeah I'm fine. Just being around so many people gets to me. _Never_ tell anyone that, though. I want to be the Top Coordinator, and I won't allow that to trip me up, or let anyone think that it can."

"Oh, no worries," Brittany said reassuringly. "Your secret is safe with me!"

"Thanks," Lauren said before looking up at the monitor above them. "Oh, look, they're announcing the contestants who will move on."

Brittany searched amongst the eight coordinators chosen to advance, and was dismayed to not find her name up there. Lauren smiled gleefully upon recognizing her name, but then turned to Brittany and frowned sympathetically.

"I'm sorry…" She said, "Next time, though," Lauren said with a smile.

"Hopefully. Good luck," Brittany said quietly before standing up and exiting the backroom for the stands. Niko and JJ stood up to let Brittany into the stands with them, both apologizing profusely for her loss. "Guys, it's fine. Seriously."

"I don't know what they were thinking…" JJ said, clearly frustrated. "That performance with spheal was great!"

"There were better performances, and I think the lack of dressing up did hurt me…" Brittany admitted.

"Well, like we said earlier, there's always next time," Niko said reassuringly. "Remember, in Hoenn you didn't do so well in your first couple of contests, and then you made it to the Top 8!"

"Yeah, Niko, except that I'm not starting over in these contests like you are with your gym battles," Brittany said with a hint of frustration in her voice. Realizing how angry she was, she turned to Niko and apologized.

"No worries, we all have a right to be angry. Look, Lauren just advanced to the semifinals already," Niko said, pointing to the blue-haired girl with the flower dress hugging her chimchar. He was right, though: the coordinator was advancing on to the next round and, as they would soon find out, onto the finals as well, this time using her haunter.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, we have our two finalists for the Jubilife City Pokémon Contest! Lauren from Canalave City and Pauline from Oreburgh City!"

"Haunter, you're up!" Lauren shouted, summoning the gas pokémon once more.

"Wormadam, I choose you!" Pauline shouted, summoning a black, bagworm-esque pokémon with chains of pebbles for arms and a brown-tipped beak. "Use rock blast!"

"Haunter, confuse ray and shadow punch!" Lauren said, thrusting her right fist forward. Haunter did the same, instead combining the confuse ray with the shadow punch, which exploded into a thousand specks of dust when it collided with wormadam's brown and red body. The bagworm pokémon fell backwards, accidentally releasing a rock blast at an angle upwards across the battlefield, missing haunter by several feet. "Now, use night shade!"

Haunter shot a wave of spectral energy at wormadam in the shape of its own body, knocking the bug and ground type back to the ground. Lauren then commanded a series of shadow punches, which once more subdued wormadam. Before it was defeated, the bagworm released a beam of psychic energy at haunter, which hit the gas pokémon directly in the chest and knocked it backwards. By this time Lauren's bar was much higher than Pauline's, and the former delivered the final blow with night shade.

"Looks like wormadam is unable to battle, Lauren wins! The victory goes to Lauren from Canalave City!"

"Wee! Haunter, we did it!" Lauren shouted, trying to hug the ghost type but for obvious reasons was unable to. Nonetheless, the two looked pleased by their victory when Marian approached them with the Jubilife contest ribbon, a gold piece in the shape of a rhombus with a crown on top and two teal ribbons coming out of the bottom.

* * *

Brittany, JJ, and Niko were walking out of the contest hall when they noticed Lauren walking out directly in front of them.

"Hey, Lauren," Brittany said, attracting the blue-haired coordinator's attention.

"Oh, hey Brittany!"

"Congrats on winning the ribbon. Your haunter was very impressive!"

Lauren blushed slightly. "Thanks, I'll tell him you said that. Anyways, I've got to get going. See you all around!"

"Wait, Lauren," Niko shouted as the young woman was walking away.

"Yes?" She asked, turning back around.

"Next time we meet, I challenge you to a battle. I want to see what that haunter can really do."

Lauren smirked. "You got it, sugar," She said with a wink before turning around proceeding down the street.

Niko looked at JJ and Brittany with confusion. " _Sugar_?"

"She was flirting with you, Niko," JJ said, laughing.

"Nope, not at all," Niko said, denying it. Brittany and JJ rolled their eyes. " _Anyways_! Let's get back to the Pokémon Center. We've got to get to Oreburgh City!"

"And your first gym battle," Brittany said, "Which you won't have to dress up for!"

"And I'm quite glad about it, too!" Niko replied. The three continued laughing all the way to the Pokémon Center, where they would prepare for the next leg of their journey—to Oreburgh City!

* * *

 **Author's note: Lots of dialogue for this one, and the contest went by pretty quickly, but that wasn't necessarily the focus of the episode, as you can tell. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed it.**


	4. The prideful penguin

**Episode 4: The prideful penguin**

After Brittany's loss in the Jubilife City Pokémon Contest, the three continued to their next destination—Oreburgh City, where Niko would compete in his first Sinnoh League gym battle. According to the map JJ was given, with some help from a map app on his new Pokétch, the journey would take only a couple of days.

The dividing path between the two cities was route 203, which was unique to the group in that its environment wasn't as heavily forested. Throughout much of their journey on land in the Johto and Hoenn regions, they found themselves walking along paths through forests and mountains. Route 203, on the other hand, consisted more of plains and rolling hills than dense forests. It allowed the three trainers to observe the world around them without having to search through trees and bushes to find it.

During lunch on their first day back on the road, Niko spent some time with turtwig and shinx. It was his first opportunity since catching shinx to train them for his upcoming gym battle.

At first, shinx didn't seem to take a liking to turtwig, even stealing some of turtwig's berries from it. The tiny leaf pokémon scowled at shinx, but hardly made a move, suggesting to Niko its aversion to conflict. Shinx hardly felt ashamed either, which prompted Niko to scold it and later lecture it on the morality of stealing. Shinx hardly seemed fazed, but went along all the same.

After eating, Niko brought the two to the bottom of a small hill to work on battling while JJ groomed his pokémon and Brittany pondered her loss in Jubilife.

"Alright you two, we've got a gym battle coming up, and both of you will likely be competing in it. JJ, do you know what type of pokémon Roark uses?" JJ looked down at Niko from his spot near the top of the hill and shook his head. "Great…anyways! The way I usually train is by doing a couple of things. I like to prioritize speed in battling. Both of you seem to be fast, especially you, shinx. So how about we go on a little run, just the three of us?"

Turtwig nodded shyly while shinx gave Niko a cold stare. It was clear that the flash pokémon hardly liked him, and felt like it was being forced into this situation. Sighing, Niko turned and began to jog through the plains, with both pokémon managing to keep up for the first few minutes. Eventually, turtwig began to tire out and fall back. Shinx looked behind and sniggered a little, which agitated the tiny leaf and forced it to run faster, eventually tackling shinx and rolling through the grass with it.

"Oh, you're kidding me…" Niko said once he noticed the two fighting. "Hey! Hey! You two are teammates! _Act like it_ ," Turtwig and shinx managed to separate themselves from one another, scowling at one another. Niko sighed again. "Come on, this is important."

They continued jogging for a bit, with turtwig and shinx each running on one side of their trainer, resisting the urge to peer over at the other and start another fight. Once the three made it back to the hill, they were all exhausted, even shinx, who at one point coaxed turtwig into a race and won, but tired itself out in the process.

"So…how was that?" Brittany asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Could have been better. Not sure why there's animosity between these two."

"Whatever it is, you'll surely figure it out," JJ said, looking up from growlithe, who was happily being groomed. Niko smiled and nodded before sitting down to rest before they continued walking down route 203.

After several more hours of walking, the group rested once more on the edge of a pond that traveled east-west. Niko attempted to train turtwig and shinx, but the two seemed to lose interest, and Niko hardly bothered, instead focused on thinking of ways to get the two to do _something_.

Once dinner was finished—complete with shinx once again trying to steal turtwig's food—the group quickly fell to sleep. Sometime during the night, Niko woke up to something frantically moving through the water. Sitting up, he peered over at the river and didn't see anything, electing to fall back to sleep. Moments later, he heard the same noise once again. He reached for shinx's pokéball and summoned the flash pokémon.

"Hey, shinx, can you use charge for me? There's something in that river that keeps making a sound," Niko asked. Oddly enough, shinx obliged and charged up electricity, causing it to glow. Niko stood up and walked with shinx over to the bank of the river. Looking into the water, the head of a penguin suddenly popped out. It looked unconscious, as it was floating along in the river without resistance. "Shinx! We've gotta do something," Niko said, panicking a little. Before he got a chance to hesitate, he leapt into the river after the piplup. The sound he made when he dove into the water seemed to wake up Brittany, who looked around confusedly until she noticed shinx standing there lighting up the area.

"Shinx, what's going—Niko!" She frantically got out of her sleeping bag and ran down the river alongside shinx, who provided light the whole way. Eventually Niko swam to the bank of the river and crawled out, holding a small penguin-like pokémon. "Niko…are you alright?"

"Yeah, a little cold, but shinx and I found this thing floating in the river. Not sure how it got there, but it made enough noise to wake me up, so something must have happened only minutes ago."

"Here, let's take it back to our camp and get you dried off," Brittany said, leading Niko, shinx, and the penguin over to a camp. By now JJ was awake, albeit barely. Once he saw Niko soaked and holding an unfamiliar pokémon, his eyes widened with surprise and curiosity. Niko lay the penguin down on a blanket while he explained everything to JJ. Meanwhile, the curly blonde trainer summoned growlithe to light a fire to warm Niko up.

After a while, Niko turned to the penguin, who was still asleep. It was then that he noticed it had some bruises and scars.

"Can we heal it?" Niko asked, lightly touching one of its flipper-like arms.

"First off, what _is it_?" JJ asked. Niko shrugged and pulled out his pokédex:

" _Piplup, the penguin pokémon. Water type. A poor walker, it often falls down. However, its strong pride makes it puff up its chest without a care_."

"Piplup…why is a penguin pokémon around here, in a plains environment?" JJ asked curiously.

"No idea," Niko thought for a moment before continuing. "I would bet that maybe this pokémon got into some sort of fight, but refused to give up, since it's a prideful species?"

"That's certainly a possibility. But either way, we need to heal it up," Brittany said, reaching into her bag for some bandages and other first-aid supplies. As she was about to tend to the pokémon, piplup woke up and looked around at everyone.

"Pip! Piplup!" It shouted angrily at Niko, Brittany, and JJ before slapping Brittany's hand away and trying to run off.

"Wait, piplup!" Niko shouted. The penguin pokémon turned around and stared at it. "We're just trying to help. I found you in that river and you looked hurt. Before you leave, let us help you," Piplup stared at Niko, then turned to Brittany, and obliged after hesitating for a moment.

It didn't take long for Brittany to fix piplup up, at which time it promptly left the group. Before going, though, it looked at Niko and nodded, as if acknowledging his role in the penguin's rescue. Before long, everyone was back in bed. Niko was dry, shinx was sound asleep, and all seemed right in the world again.

The following day went largely the same way, with Niko spending some of his morning and afternoon trying to train turtwig and shinx, and only getting marginally better results. They had managed to get through most of their daily jog without one provoking the other. By mid-afternoon, they were working on their moves, with turtwig practicing its absorb on a nearby bush, and shinx working on its "burst speed," as Niko called it, which are essentially short sprints in alternating directions. Niko also learned that shinx knew the move bite, as it used it on turtwig, which irritated the tiny leaf pokémon immensely.

While they were practicing on the edge of a nearby forest to the north, Niko looked beyond the hill they stood on and saw something small and blue running west, away from a group of what looked like birds. Curious, Niko ran down the hill to get a better look and, lo and behold, it was the piplup from earlier, running from a group of black and grey birds of varying shapes and sizes.

"Hey, piplup!" Niko shouted. "Over here!"

The penguin pokémon turned its head to Niko and chose to ignore him, instead running back in the direction Niko and his friends had traveled.

"Shinx! Turtwig, over here!" Niko said, looking behind him to see his two pokémon embroiled in a scuffle. They immediately stopped and looked at Niko, who frowned and motioned them over. "Come on, that piplup needs help."

Brittany and JJ, hearing Niko's shouts, also got up and ran to help out. Together, the three humans and their pokémon advanced on the piplup and its group of pursuers. Niko commanded turtwig to use absorb on the closest bird it found, and shinx to use charge, which enabled it to run faster using the electricity stored in its body. Brittany summoned pikachu and JJ sent out shroomish, using thundershock and stun spore, respectively. Shroomish managed to stun the birds and bring them to the ground while pikachu shocked them. Niko then ran over to the piplup with turtwig and shinx.

"You alright?" Niko asked, bending down and looking at piplup, who exhibited no new scars or injuries. However, piplup didn't seem happy with their intervention. It looked away, as if ashamed by Niko's help. "Listen, you were in danger, piplup. I wanted to help you. You very well might be a strong pokémon, and I have no doubt of that, but sometimes it's okay to ask for help."

Brittany and JJ were intently listening while keeping an eye on the flock of birds, whom JJ recognized to be pokémon called starly and staravia, according to his pokédex.

Niko tried to touch the piplup, but it shifted away from his hand before looking back and seeing the stern, but caring look Niko gave it. Piplup then turned back to Niko, and nodded.

"Huh?" Niko asked. Piplup moved towards Niko and held out its flipper, as if it was offering a handshake. Niko took it, smiling. "Well, I'm glad to have helped you, piplup."

As Niko got back up to leave, piplup looked at turtwig with leery eyes. Niko looked down at the penguin, and at turtwig, who looked up at Niko and nodded.

"You want to battle it?" Niko asked. Turtwig replied with a nod, and it and piplup took several steps away from each other to simulate a battlefield. "Alright then, turtwig, let's go! Use tackle!" The tiny leaf pokémon rushed forward at piplup, who dodged the move and responded with bubble, which irritated turtwig at best. "Now, absorb!" Turtwig's seedling began to glow a bright green color as it sapped piplup's energy. The penguin cringed as it collapsed onto the ground. Without thinking much of it, Niko pulled out an empty pokéball from his bag and tossed it at the piplup. The penguin pokémon glowed a bright red before entering the ball. It fell onto the ground and wiggled three times before ultimately clicking. Niko walked past turtwig and picked up the pokéball, showing it to the grass type and shinx. The electric type in particular seemed interested in its new teammate, but tried to play it off as mere indifference.

"Now, what do we do about those birds?" JJ asked, pointing back to the flock that was now recovering from the stun spore/thundershock combination.

"I don't know…?" Niko asked with a shrug. "I don't think they'll bother us anymore, though."

JJ nodded, and the three walked back to their camp with a new addition to their team. Niko summoned piplup once they got back and sat down in front of it.

"Listen, I caught you because I think you want to be stronger, is that correct?" Piplup nodded. "I don't know much about you, but I want to get to know you, and together I want to become stronger. Are you with me?"

Piplup nodded, showing no emotion. It didn't seem like the kind of pokémon that wanted to be with a trainer, and the kind of pokémon that stood true to its pokédex entry. He appreciated that, and vowed to himself to work with such a prideful little pokémon.

* * *

 **Author's note: The piplup capture, admittedly, could have been written better, but rest assured, I do want to expand more on piplup's-and shinx's-personalities. Both of them present unique opportunities to practice character development and show growth, both for Niko and for each of them. As for turtwig, it seems that our little turtle friend is just shy and eager to prove itself to Niko and its teammates. Regardless, I hope you've enjoyed them so far.**


	5. Coals and banter

**Episode 5: Coals and banter**

The day following Niko's capture of piplup in the plains of route 203, the group reached Oreburgh City, where Niko hoped to win his first Sinnoh gym badge against Roark.

Oreburgh City is known primarily for being a mining town that is "blessed with significant natural resources." Walking through, Niko was amazed at the variety of machines being used to extract the coal necessary to not just run those machines, but to power many of the other technologies in the city and beyond. Sitting in the Pokémon Center, Niko expressed this wonder, but didn't seem to find the best of audiences.

"Niko, coal is dirty energy," Brittany said with a slight frown.

"I know that. I don't like it either, but the machinery is still cool!" Niko replied in protest. Brittany shrugged, not wanting to push the topic any further, which Niko reluctantly agreed with. "Anyways, we've got some time left in the day, want to see if the gym is open?"

"Are you _ready_ to challenge the gym, Niko?" JJ asked, looking up from his Pokétch. "You haven't spent much time training since you caught piplup."

"We've spent enough time," Niko said, laying his hand on the table in between him and JJ. "And even if we do go there, I can always just arrange an appointment for a match and come back later, right?"

"I suppose so. Plus, it might give you an idea as to what type of trainer Roark is," JJ said. The three got up and exited the center in search of the gym. It didn't take long—the gym was just down the street from the pokémon center, near the base of a mountain. However, they were walking slow so Niko—and, evidently, JJ—could observe the coal mining process, much to Brittany's displeasure.

"Guys, there's other things to do here than look at mining," Brittany eventually said.

"Look Brittany, like I said, I'm no fan of coal either, but look at this stuff! Humans _made_ this technology!" Niko said, "I mean, science is pretty amazing, isn't it?"

Brittany raised an eyebrow as she saw a thick cloud of smoke erupt from the Oreburgh Mine to the south of them. "Yeah, science is amazing, Niko," She said while rolling her eyes.

"You're both right, though," JJ said, "science is amazing, but there are other things to do here. There's a museum!"

"Like the Pewter museum?" Niko asked, remembering their brief visit to the museum at the very beginning of their journey with Fay. JJ nodded. "Sounds cool, maybe we can check it out after I get my badge."

The other two nodded in agreement while they walked towards the gym, which was a massive mound of rock with a hole in the middle that presumably led into the interior. JJ made a comment about how it was similar to Pewter's gym. As he said that, he and Niko eyed each other.

"Roark uses rock types," they said simultaneously.

Brittany chuckled. "Well, it was pretty easy to narrow it down, you two. I mean, it's not like he would use water types. This is a mining town!"

"Well, true, it seems obvious now that I think about it. But hey, I actually have the advantage here! I have a grass _and_ a water type!"

"So, you shouldn't have too much of a problem," JJ commented. They finally entered the main room where the battlefield was, only to realize that someone beat Niko to it. On the far end of the gym was a tall man in a gray miner's outfit with a red mining helmet and thick black glasses. On the opposing side was a short girl with blue and teal hair. The battle was just about to begin, evidently.

"This is a gym match between Leader Roark of the Oreburgh Gym and Lauren of Canalave City. It will be a three-on-three match. The trainer to defeat all three of their opponent's pokémon will be declared the victor. Only the challenger may substitute their pokémon."

Roark pulled out a pokéball and immediately summoned a geodude. Lauren pulled out a pokéball, and cried out "Haunter, I choose you!"

Niko, Brittany, and JJ walked behind Lauren and into the stands to watch. As the match began, Niko turned to his friends with a bemused glare. "So, she does contests _and_ gym battles?"

"Apparently so," JJ said, shrugging. "But hey, maybe you'll have something to chat about on your first date together," JJ smirked at Niko while Brittany, who sat in between them, giggled under her breath. Fuming, Niko looked away from his curly blonde friend and watched the battle.

"Geodude, stealth rock!"

"Haunter, use hypnosis!" Lauren shouted, thrusting an arm to the side in a gesture. The gas pokémon's eyes began to glow as it put the rock pokémon to sleep. "Now, shadow punch! Over and over again!"

While geodude was sound asleep, haunter threw a series of spectral fists at it, knocking it around, left and right. However, it didn't seem to do too much to the rock type, who woke up a couple minutes later. Roark commanded it to use rock throw, but the attack ended up colliding with haunter's shadow punch, breaking it into dozens of smaller pieces. At this point the match seemed to be a stalemate, and it was only the first round.

"Haunter, confuse ray!" Lauren commanded the gas pokémon conjured a series of bright yellow orbs and released them in geodude's direction. Once they got close to the rock pokémon, they began spinning around it, causing its confusion. Geodude then, on Roark's command, used rock throw, but ultimately missed its intended target—haunter—and hit the ground several yards to its right. "Now, shadow punch!"

"Geodude, focus your rock throw! Fight through the confusion!" Roark yelled out although he hardly seemed concerned, Niko observed. Geodude was then hit several times with the spectral punches, knocking it backwards across the field and defeated at Roark's feet.

"Geodude is unable to battle, haunter wins! Roark will now send out his second pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Return, geodude. Onix, you're up!" Roark commanded, summoning a familiar pokémon to Niko and JJ. The rock type was in the form of a massive snake made up of boulders and rocks of varying sizes with a horn atop its head. "Use rock throw!"

The rock snake used its tail to kick a medium-sized rock at haunter, who phased away from it and launched a shadow punch to the rock snake's face. Instead, the spectral fist was intercepted by another rock throw, this time originating from onix's _mouth_ , halting the attack and breaking up the rock.

"I didn't know it could do that…" Lauren muttered to herself. "Oh well. Haunter, hypnosis!"

"Screech onix!" Roark commanded.

"But, screech shouldn't affect haunter…" Niko said, trying to understand the gym leader's motives. It didn't take long, though: onix's eyes were closed as it released the ear-splitting sound, and also disrupting the hypnosis somehow. "I guess loud noise can cancel a move like that…?"

"Apparently so. Screech is an oddly powerful move," JJ observed.

"Alright haunter, use confuse ray!" Lauren commanded. Onix used screech once more with the same outcome. "Hmph…alright then. Haunter, use night shade!"

The gas pokémon conjured a shadow copy of itself and launched it forward at onix, who tried to deflect with rock throw, but the shade swept through it, hitting the rock snake pokémon with an unusually powerful force. Lauren and haunter followed up with another series of shadow punches that quickly overwhelmed onix, knocking it backwards and onto the ground next to Roark.

"Onix is unable to battle, haunter wins!" The judge declared. "Roark will now send out his third pokémon!"

"Wow, Lauren's doing really well!" Niko said in astonishment.

"You're surprised?" Brittany asked, equally astonished by Niko's observation. "She won the Jubilife contest with that haunter."

"Yeah, but still. This is different, isn't it?" Niko asked. Brittany simply shrugged.

"Well Lauren, this battle seems oddly familiar," Roark said as he returned onix. "If I recall, last time we battled, your haunter swept geodude and onix as well."

"Last time?" Niko asked curiously. "So, this is a rematch?"

"Yes, Niko, you've done those before, too," Brittany said teasingly.

"Okay I'm done with your sass, Brittany," Niko responded, pretending to be angry. "Woah…what's that?" Niko asked as he saw Roark's third pokémon. It was a dinosaur-like pokémon with a massive blue, dome-shaped head with small spikes protruding along the sides and back of it. Its arms were small and stubby, and the back half of its body bore a jagged blue-gray pattern running down to its legs. Lastly, it had a short blue tail. Niko pulled out his pokédex to examine the pokémon:

" _Cranidos, the head butt pokémon. Rock type. A lifelong jungle dweller from 100 million years ago, it would snap obstructing trees with headbutts_."

"A fossil pokémon…wow…" Niko said in surprise.

"Cranidos, zen headbutt!" Roark commanded in a powerful tone. The rock type burst forward with astonishing speed. Haunter used shadow punch to block the move, but it hardly seemed to have an effect, as the cranidos launched off of the battlefield and directly at haunter, the dome on its head glowing a bright blue color. Haunter took the hit and was launched into the front wall, directly above the entrance. It collapsed onto the ground, but wasn't out. It then used night shade, but cranidos swiftly dodged the move and waited for haunter to return to the battlefield before it used zen headbutt again, this time defeating the gas pokémon.

"Haunter is unable to battle, cranidos wins! Lauren will send out her second pokémon."

"Blast it…" She said. _I made the same mistake last time…c'mon Lauren, you can fix this mistake_. "Chimchar, you're up!"

"A fire type!?" Niko said in surprise. "Oh man…"

"Niko, just wait…" Brittany said, laying a hand on his arm. "Lauren's a smart woman, she'll win this time."

"Chimchar, use ember and fury swipes!" Lauren commanded. The chimp pokémon rushed at cranidos, its hands ablaze from the ember. Cranidos slowly moved backwards, ducking and dodging each fury swipe before using a normal headbutt attack. However, chimchar's hand collided with the headbutt, causing it to halt the move but launch it backwards towards Lauren.

"Cranidos, zen headbutt!"

"Chimchar, dodge the zen headbutt!" Lauren commanded. Chimchar nodded, jumping around the battlefield, agilely moving out of the way when cranidos got close enough. There were some pointed rocks jutting out of the battlefield, and occasionally chimchar would jump onto one of them and cause cranidos to break it. After a while, the head butt pokémon began to slow down a little, which gave chimchar and Lauren the opening they were looking for. "Now, ember and fury swipes again!"

"You might have exhausted cranidos, but that doesn't make it easier to do damage to it," Roark said in a professorial tone when his opponents realized how little cranidos was hurt by the fire. "Now cranidos, zen headbutt!"

"Dodge, chimchar!" Lauren commanded. Fortunately, the chimp pokémon was able to evade the psychic type move, especially at as close of a range as this particular one was. Lauren then pulled out a pokéball. "Return, chimchar," She shuffled through her bag sitting on the ground to her left and pulled out a third pokéball. "Budew, you're up!"

The small pokémon released from Lauren's pokéball was light green in the shape of a rosebud and bore a yellow face with small, slit-like eyes and two small, stubby green feet. Niko pulled out his pokédex to observe the small pokémon:

" _Budew, the bud pokémon. Grass and poison type. Sensitive to changing temperature, the bud is said to bloom when it feels the sun's warm touch_."

"Ah, a substitute. That's different. Well, hardly. Cranidos, use zen headbutt!"

"Budew, wait for a moment," Lauren said calmly. Once cranidos was close enough, she shouted. "Stun spore!"

The top of budew's rosebud body unfurled themselves, showing that they were rather thick vines instead with small yellow circles on the inside. Then, from the top of its head a stream of yellow dust emitted into the air in front of cranidos, bringing it to a stop and causing it to collapsed on its front, paralyzed.

"Now, use growth!" Lauren commanded. Budew nodded, suddenly glowing briefly before using its second attack—absorb. The vines on top of its head opened up once more and began to glow, sapping cranidos' strength in a similar way Niko's turtwig would with its seedling. Roark bit the bottom of his lip, clearly frustrated, but hardly anxious.

"Cranidos, zen headbutt!" He shouted, however cranidos was unable to, seeing as it still couldn't move. Budew continued to use absorb, growing only slightly each time from the growth attack. Eventually, cranidos did get back up, although when it tried to use zen headbutt it stumbled forward, but still only barely missing its intended target.

"Budew, finish it off with absorb!" Lauren commanded. The bud pokémon once more sapped the energy of cranidos, bringing the battle to an end.

"Cranidos is unable to battle, budew is the winner. The victory goes to Lauren from Canalave City!" The judge declared.

"Whee! We did it this time, budew!" Lauren said, crouching down and holding her arms out to pick up the grass type. Budew leapt into her arms and smiled as well, not feeling any lack of energy. Roark approached her alongside cranidos.

"Lauren, you did much better. It seems that you learned from your mistakes in our last battle, and used both chimchar's and budew's attacks and abilities to their fullest. Kudos, you've earned the Coal Badge. Also…I think you have some fans," Roark said, pointing up to the stands where Niko, Brittany, and JJ were sitting.

"Oh! You three…? What are you doing here?" Lauren asked, looking confused.

"It's funny, actually," Niko said as they walked down the stands and onto the battlefield. "I was stopping by to challenge Roark, but we just so happened to see your battle, instead."

"Oh, I see. Well, hopefully I put on a show for you guys," Lauren said, holding budew in her arms, who was smiling eagerly at the group in front of it.

"You did quite well, actually," Brittany said with a smile. "And I think it's cool that you're doing both contests and gyms."

Lauren nodded with a smile while she engaged in conversation with Brittany and JJ, while Niko turned his attention to Roark.

"So, you would like to challenge me?" Roark asked, holding out his hand, which was covered in a white, albeit dirty, glove.

"Yes, if that's possible," Niko said, returning the handshake.

"Of course it is! How would tomorrow afternoon sound?"

"Works for me," Niko replied with a grin.

"Great, I'll see you then. I've got some work to do tonight and tomorrow with my mining company, but I'll be free in the afternoon," With a wave, Roark walked into the backroom of the gym, presumably to get some other work done. Niko turned back to his two friends and Lauren.

"So, guess I've got a battle tomorrow!" He said excitedly.

"Then you've got some training to do," Brittany said with a smirk. "Can't let Lauren do better than you."

"Well, as long as I win the first time that won't happen," Niko said with a smirk as well.

"Hey!" Lauren snapped back. "I'd like to see you do better!" She seemed to understand Niko was simply throwing banter back, but she didn't take it as well as Niko thought she would.

"Whatever you say. Anyways, we should get some food first, and then I'll train."

"Sure, that's fine with me," Brittany said. "Lauren, would you like to join us?"

Lauren gave a shifty eye towards Niko, but responded to Brittany with a bright smile. "Of course! As long as this _guy_ doesn't make any more backhanded comments."

"It was banter!" Niko protested, eliciting a laugh from JJ and Brittany as the four exited the gym and walked towards the Pokémon Center.

* * *

"So, Lauren, you're from Canalave City?" Brittany asked. Lauren, who was also feeding budew at the time, looked up and nodded.

"Yep, moved there a couple years ago."

"Oh, really? Where are you originally from?"

"From the Johto region. Dad's work brought us here. He works for a boat company and they relocated him here."

"Ah, and how do you like Sinnoh so far?" JJ asked.

"I love it here. This is actually the first time I've left Canalave. I've wanted to go on a journey around here, challenging gyms and whatnot, but my old man wouldn't let me. For a time I challenged gyms in Johto, but I nearly got into an accident from a poacher and his tyranitar. It scared the hell out of my Dad and he forbade me from travelling again under his watch. Now that I'm 18, though, he figured I was old enough to travel again on my own."

"Oh, I'm 18 too!" Brittany said with a simple smile. "And that's cool. Is that where you met your haunter? Back in Johto?"

"Oh, yeah! Haunty and I go way back. It was my first ever pokémon as a ghastly. We've been together for, like, five years or something by now."

"That explains why it's so strong," Niko commented as he took a sip of water.

"Thank you, Niko. That's the nicest thing you've said to me all day!" Lauren said, half-teasing. Niko ignored the comment, continuing to listen to the rest of the conversation.

"Anyways, yeah, and I caught budew a few months ago, before I went on my trip, and just got chimchar from Professor Rowan a couple weeks ago. After leaving Sandgem Town, I went to Oreburgh City to challenge Roark, and lost. That's when I decided to take a detour and head _back_ to Jubilife City, where I met all of you, and try out contests. My win there made me realize that I could do better, and so I chose to come back to Oreburgh and challenge Roark a second time today."

"So, you plan on competing in gyms and contests, then?" JJ asked, listening intently to Lauren. The blue-haired trainer nodded.

"Yep! So I guess I'll be seeing you all more!"

"Great," Niko said with a quiet cough in an attempt to hide his sarcasm. Lauren heard it all the same, but ignored Niko this time.

"Anyways, I should get going. But, I do want to see Niko lose to Roark tomorrow, so if you don't mind the company…"

"Of course!" Brittany said, grinning as she and Lauren both turned to Niko, who rolled his eyes.

"We'd be glad to have ya," He said, eying Lauren. The young woman waved quickly before turning around and exiting the Pokémon Center with budew. Then Brittany turned to Niko.

"Why are you so mean to her?" She demanded.

"What? How am I being mean?" Niko replied in a defensive tone. "All I did was say a few sarcastic things to her, that's all! I've done the same to you and JJ, too!"

"Well, some people take it better than others. You should keep that in mind around her," Brittany said, turning back to her food. JJ, who was sitting across from the other two, nodded before turning back to his Pokétch.

"Right, well, I'm off to go do some training. I'll see you two in a bit," Niko said, getting up and leaving for the Pokémon Center's battlefield.

* * *

 **Author's note: So, we've learned a bit more about Lauren. And it seems like her and Niko, for whatever reason, don't seem to get along. Wonder why? Hope you enjoyed it!**


	6. A match set in stone!

**Episode 6: A match set in stone!**

"Alright piplup just a little faster, you can do it!" Niko shouted as he watched his pokémon run around the Pokémon Center's battlefield. Since Lauren's gym battle the previous day, Niko has spent much of his time working with his own team of pokémon in preparation for their upcoming gym battle with Roark, a rock type user. Even though Niko has the advantage from the start, he felt it was necessary to continue working with his team, especially piplup, his most recent capture. "That's it!" Niko said as piplup beat turtwig and shinx in another lap. "Alright, time to rest up, our gym battle is coming up!"

Niko returned his team and walked back into the center where his friends were waiting. Brittany was finishing lunch and JJ was sitting across from her showing his Pokétch to marill, who seemed enthralled by the technology.

"How was the training?" Brittany asked as she finished a salad.

"Fine, I think. Piplup's getting faster, but turtwig and shinx are still fighting, which I just don't understand," Niko replied, holding his hands up to his temples in mock frustration.

"I'm sure it's just a phase," JJ commented. "You've had these kinds of things happen with other pokémon. Either they'll grow out of it, or something will snap them out of it."

"That's true," Niko responded. "Anyways, we can head out whenever you guys are ready."

"Shouldn't you eat something?" Brittany asked. "You won't get a chance to for another hour or so."

Niko waved her comment away. "I think I'll be fine. I had a large breakfast, remember?" Brittany nodded, seeming to recall the events of that morning. While Niko was training, she and JJ spent some time looking around shops for something she could wear in her next contest, which they determined would be in Floaroma Town, just north of Jubilife City. They were unsuccessful, and elected to check for something next time they passed through Jubilife City, which would be after Niko defeated Roark.

Running out of possible things to do, the three got up and proceeded towards the Oreburgh City gym. When they got there, they noticed a familiar blue-haired woman sitting on a bench outside.

"Hey!" Lauren said cheerfully. "Ready?"

Niko nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

"Good! Hi Brittany, JJ!" The other two exchanged pleasantries as they walked into the gym. As Niko entered the battlefield, he noticed Roark sitting in the stands, clearly studying some booklet. Looking up through his thick-rimmed glasses, he smiled upon seeing his newest challenger.

"Afternoon, Niko. Ready for our battle?"

"Absolutely. Same rules as last time?"

"Same rules as for Lauren's battle. Ah, I see she's come to watch you as well," Roark said as he jumped off the stands and onto the dirt-covered battlefield. Walking to his end, he summoned his judge from in the backroom, and as soon as he made it to the middle of the field, explained the rules.

Once the rules were explained—three-on-three, only challenger can substitute—Roark and Niko summoned their first pokémon. Roark chose geodude, and Niko chose piplup.

"I've never seen Niko battle before," Lauren leaned over to mention to Brittany. "Is he any good?"

"He's pretty good, actually," Brittany said with a smile.

"Came in Top 8 in two different Pokémon Leagues," JJ added. Lauren raised an eyebrow, seemingly impressed.

"Wow, then he should have no problem with this," She said, turning back to the battlefield.

"Geodude, rock throw!" Roark commanded.

"Piplup, evade and run forward!" Niko commanded. The penguin pokémon nodded, rushing at geodude with its increased speed from its previous training. Niko nodded, pleased that his tactics seemed to work. _Piplup wants to do well, it won't fail me_ , he thought. "Great, now use bubble!"

The water type released a series of bubbles at geodude, who attempted to swat them away with its fists, but was unsuccessful. Piplup then dropped its flipper atop geodude's head, blowing more bubbles in the rock pokemon's face until it slapped piplup in the stomach, knocking it to the ground.

"Rock throw!" Roark commanded. This time, geodude succeeded, hitting piplup in the face with a rock and knocking it back down.

"Don't give in, piplup!" Niko shouted. "Use bubble!"

Piplup slowly got up, albeit with some difficulty, and sprayed geodude with another round of bubbles. While geodude was busy swatting them away, piplup rushed forward and headbutt the rock type before releasing another jet of bubbles, this time knocking out the rock type.

"Geodude is unable to battle, piplup wins! Leader Roark will send out his next pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Onix, you're up!" Roark commanded. "Use stealth rock!"

Onix summoned a series of rocks around its body and transported them through the air across the battlefield, surrounding the space in front of Niko. He then commanded the rock snake use rock throw at piplup.

"Dodge, piplup, and use bubble!" Niko commanded. Piplup rolled out of the way of rock throw and spat out another series of bubbles, fast enough to reach onix before it could react. Onix endured the attack, but then lowered its head and bellowed out an ear-piercing screech attack, causing piplup to fall onto the ground, covering its ears from the pain.

"Now, rock throw!" Roark commanded.

"Dodge, piplup!" Niko shouted, but realized the penguin pokémon had difficulty hearing, and just barely registered his voice when the rock throw nearly hit it. Piplup rolled out of the way, hiding behind one of the pointed rocks on the field for protection. "Now, run forward and use bubble!"

"Pip!" Piplup shouted as it pursued onix, trying to regain its speed from earlier. Onix then lowered its head and used screech once more, causing piplup to cry out from the pain it was inflicting on its ears.

"Slap it away, onix!" Roark commanded. Sliding its heavy, stone-covered tail across the battlefield, onix slammed into piplup, launching the penguin into the stands on the right side, right under Lauren, Brittany, and JJ. Piplup collapsed like a rag doll onto the ground.

"Piplup, you can get up buddy. Remember what I told you—we're going to get stronger," Niko said softly. Piplup struggled, its flippers shaking viciously from the force of onix's attack, and its ears ringing from the screech. It suddenly collapsed back onto the ground.

"Piplup is unable to battle, onix wins! Niko will now send out his second pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Great job, piplup. I'm proud of you," He put piplup's pokéball back into his pocket as he reached for his second. "Turtwig, you're up!"

"Wait, he has _two_ starter pokémon?" Lauren asked, somehow shocked.

"Really? Piplup's the third starter?" Brittany asked in return, also shocked. Lauren nodded. "When we visited Professor Rowan, he only had turtwig and chimchar with him. He didn't mention the water type."

"Mhmm. Usually Rowan hands out turtwig, chimchar, or piplup. Guess some other trainer got a piplup before Niko could choose."

Brittany nodded. _Could that piplup be the one Rowan used to have?_ She thought for a moment. _Unlikely, but it would also explain why piplup was found in a warmer climate. As a penguin, shouldn't it be where its cold? And even if it's Rowan's, then what happened to its original trainer?_

"Turtwig, use absorb!" Niko shouted, but the tiny leaf pokémon was attacked immediately upon entering the field, as the rocks from earlier stabbed into it from every direction, which disrupted its absorb move.

"Onix, screech!"

Unsure of how to protect turtwig, Niko simply commanded another absorb, but it didn't seem to work. The tiny leaf yelped out from the screeching sounds violently entering its ears. Niko then commanded turtwig to run forward and, just like with piplup, it barely seemed to register the command when onix launched a rock throw at it. However, turtwig was still fast enough to dodge the attack, and continued running until it was in close enough range to effectively use absorb.

However, Roark commanded onix to swing its tail at turtwig. An idea suddenly coming to mind, Niko commanded turtwig to leap onto the end of onix's tail, shocking both onix, turtwig, and Roark. The tiny leaf eyed the tail as it quickly approached and, when it got close enough, turtwig launched into the air, landing on the edge of the tail and holding on for dear life.

"Turtwig, run up the tail!" Niko commanded. The tiny leaf nodded, trying to run up the rock snake's tail as it moved around, attempting to shake the grass type off. Turtwig eventually got to the point where it struggled to stay on, and hung on one of the rocks on onix's body. Noticing that turtwig seemed to be running out of energy, Niko shouted. "Absorb!"

The seedling on turtwig's head began to glow a bright green color, and onix suddenly cried out as it felt the attack working. Onix continued shaking its body, trying to remove turtwig from it, but the tiny leaf pokémon refused to move, instead replenishing its own energy and health with onix's. It then let go of the rock snake and descended along its opponent's tail, sliding down to the bottom where it jumped off, its seedling still glowing.

"Keep it up, turtwig!" Niko commanded. Turtwig nodded, focusing solely on onix as the rock snake struggled to attack, its energy being drained faster than either it or Roark had imagined. Eventually, onix leaned its head forward and collapsed onto the ground, defeated.

"Onix is unable to battle, turtwig wins! Roark will send out his final pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Turtwig, return," Niko said, "You did great, but I might need you later. Shinx, you're up!"

"Cranidos, let's go!" Roark commanded. "You've seen Lauren's match, so you should know what my cranidos is capable of. Now, I'm excited to see what _you're_ capable of, Niko. Cranidos, zen headbutt!"

As soon as shinx landed on the field, the stealth rocks appeared once more and stabbed at the electric type from all ends. Niko and shinx cringed in unison—he hated that move.

"Shinx, charge and run!" Niko commanded, pointing a finger forward. The flash pokémon nodded, rushing forward at the head butt pokémon, using charge to give it the energy to run faster. With its increased speed, it evaded the zen headbutt at the last moment. "Now, jump at cranidos and use bite on its tail!"

Shinx skidded to a stop and quickly turned back around, rushing for cranidos before the rock type realized what was happening. The electric type leapt forward and bit on cranidos' tail, electricity surging through its small body, giving it the energy it needed to continue. Cranidos began to aggressively shake its tail, trying to remove shinx from the attack.

"Cranidos, keep trying to shake it off!" Roark commanded. The head butt pokémon kept trying to remove the flash pokémon, but shinx wouldn't let go willingly. Eventually it did, landing back on the ground. "Good, now zen headbutt!"

"Shinx, run at it and use charge!" Niko commanded. Once again, the flash pokémon ran forward, but Roark and cranidos saw it coming. The rock type lowered its head and rushed at shinx, predicting where it would attempt to evade—from its left, or shinx's right—and quickly jerked its glowing dome-shaped head at the small, feline pokémon. Shinx launched to the left, rolling across the dirt battlefield. Getting up, it tried to shake the dirt off its fur but realized some of it wouldn't come off. Niko commanded it to use charge and bite once more, but shinx was considerably slower this time, likely due to its exhaustion from the previous two attempts and cranidos' attack, in addition to the stealth rock.

Niko bit his finger nervously. _Shinx might not have much left in it…it's never really battled before_. "C'mon shinx, you can do this! Wait for it to come back around!"

"Cranidos, use pursuit!" Roark commanded. The rock type rushed forward at shinx, much like its previous move. This time, shinx tried to jump at cranidos, hoping to roll off its head if it jumped high enough, but instead it quickly met the hard head of cranidos and was knocked back onto the field, once more rolling through the dirt. "Now finish it off with zen headbutt!"

"Shinx, dodge and use bite!" Niko shouted, but it was too late. Cranidos was much too fast and far too close for the flash pokémon to effectively dodge it. Shinx was launched further back on the field, eventually collapsing in defeat.

"Shinx is unable to battle, cranidos wins! Niko will send out his last pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Alright buddy, it's up to you, now. Turtwig, I choose you!" Niko shouted, summoning his grass type. "Roark, I'm ready to finish this," Niko said as turtwig once again felt the stealth rocks poke it from all angles.

The gym leader chuckled. "I'm glad to hear that, Niko. Cranidos, zen headbutt!"

"Turtwig, rush forward with tackle!"

"What's he thinking? Cranidos will crush turtwig?" Lauren asked.

"Niko likes to sometimes switch his attacks midway through," Brittany commented. "He likes to trip up his opponents that way."

As turtwig got advanced on cranidos, Niko did as Brittany had predicted—he told the tiny leaf pokémon to switch to absorb instead. Turtwig shifted to the side as cranidos passed it by, its seedling beginning to glow bright green. Cranidos tripped and collapsed onto the ground, feeling the absorb drain its energy. However, unlike onix, cranidos got back up and turned to turtwig.

"Cranidos, pursuit!" Roark commanded. The headbutt pokémon burst forward, ending turtwig's absorb and running straight for it. Niko then nodded to turtwig, as if he was telepathically commanding the pokémon.

"Now turtwig, evade!" Niko shouted. The tiny leaf pokémon jerked to the right. "Now, bite onto cranidos!" Turtwig obeyed, launching itself at the rock type's short tail and clamping down on it.

"Cranidos, shake it off!" Roark demanded.

"Turtwig, use absorb!" The tiny leaf's seedling began to glow. While its tail was being bitten, cranidos kept shaking its tail to the left and right, but the absorb kept draining it of its energy. The rock type eventually collapsed forward on the ground, allowing turtwig to let go and watch as it tried to get back up. It struggled at first, but it stood back on its two feet before collapsing a second time, right in front of turtwig.

"Cranidos is unable to battle, turtwig wins! The victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!" The judge declared.

Niko crouched down and held out his arms as turtwig ran to him. "You did great turtwig, I'm really proud of you. You, shinx, and piplup really proved yourselves today. We just have to keep it up, and we'll go far in the Sinnoh League."

Roark and cranidos, like they did with Lauren, approached Niko and turtwig. "Well, it certainly looks like you're on the right track, Niko," The gym leader said. "As proof that you defeated me, I present to you the Coal Badge."

Niko took the brown and gray badge from Roark, examining it. It was round with a flat bottom, resembling a piece of coal. He then turned back to Brittany, JJ, and Lauren, all of whom offered congratulations. Lauren even punched him in the shoulder.

"Congrats, kid," She said, looking up at Niko. That's when he realized how tall he was compared to her.

"Err thanks, Lauren."

The group then went back to the Pokémon Center so Niko could eat something while they planned the next leg of their journey. In celebration, Brittany invited Lauren to join them.

"So, you've got a contest in Floaroma Town…so we should head to Jubilife first…" JJ said, examining the paper map Lucas gave him.

"There's a contest in Floaroma?" Lauren asked. Brittany and JJ nodded in response. "Oh, well I guess I should enter that, too."

"You totally should!" Brittany said eagerly. In the back of her mind, part of her wished Lauren wouldn't, which would make it easier for the brunette to win, but she also enjoyed watching her new friend compete.

"Also, Niko…where should we go next for your gym battle?" JJ asked.

"I don't know, is there a gym in Floaroma Town?" Niko wondered.

"Nope, but there is one in Eterna City, which is north of Floaroma Town," Lauren said. "I was thinking of heading there next."

"Oh, alright then. Maybe I should head to Eterna, then," Niko said, shrugging.

"I would suggest Canalave City, but the gym leader there is far too strong for you," Lauren commented with a smile.

"Gee, thanks," Niko rolled his eyes.

Suddenly, Brittany jerked her head up from looking down at the table, as if a lightbulb went off in her head. Immediately, she turned to Lauren.

"I have an idea," She said with a half-smile. The other three all looked at Brittany, as if in suspense at what she was about to say, or suggest. "Since you're already headed to Floaroma Town and Eterna City, and compete with me in contests and Niko in gym battles, how would you like to join us on our journey?"

Lauren and JJ seemed surprised, but Niko just sighed heavily and continued eating his sandwich. The blue-haired woman nodded aggressively.

"Yes, yes of course! That'd be a lot of fun! I'd love to!" She said, hugging Brittany tightly. She then looked to JJ with a bright smile, and smirked when she looked at Niko. "Guess you'll have to put up with me some more!"

"I'm _so_ excited…" Niko said, rolling his eyes again.

"You love me, and you know it," Lauren said with a wink. "Anyways, let me grab my things, and we can leave for Jubilife as soon as you want!"

"Well, we just need to grab some supplies, but other than that I think we're ready to get back on the road. The Floaroma Contest is in a week I think, so we should get going as soon as possible," Brittany suggested with JJ's nod of approval.

Elated, Lauren shot out of her seat in their booth and ran back out of the Pokémon Center to grab her things while Brittany and Niko went off to the Oreburgh City market to grab supplies, leaving JJ to wait for Lauren in the Pokémon Center.

"This'll be quite the adventure," He muttered to himself as Niko and Brittany left their booth.

* * *

 **Author's note: So, Lauren is now a part of the group! How will this change group dynamics, and how will Lauren nascent rivalry with both Brittany and Niko shake things up? Hope you enjoyed this episode!**


	7. A budew-ing friendship!

**Episode 7: A budew-ing friendship!**

Now with Lauren in their group, the four trainers travelled west back to Jubilife City. The purpose of this trip was two-fold: Brittany needed some "nicer" clothing for her contests, and it was the quickest path to get to their next contest destination in Floaroma Town.

The days spent re-walking route 203 were either great or uneventful, depending on the perspective. Brittany and JJ seemed to get along well with Lauren. Much of their times walking was spent learning about one another. Niko, on the other hand, hardly found any charm in the young, blue-haired woman. And even if he did, he largely kept it to himself. His feelings towards Lauren were made well-known via his silence during their trip west, when he hardly engaged in conversations between the four of them. Niko himself admitted that it was a bad look on him, but didn't seem to care—for whatever reason, he was grumpy.

The environment of route 203, however, seemed to make up for it. Niko enjoyed walking through the open plains, as it felt less constricted like the forest paths often were. It also gave him ample room to train in. Through the trip to Jubilife, Niko would work with his pokémon on their speed and attack strength. During their runs, turtwig and shinx would still be competitive, with piplup simply trying to finish the run without stopping. When it came to learning new moves, Niko was working with turtwig on learning bite, shinx on learning spark, and piplup on learning peck. All three moves seemed, at first, to be unusually easy, for they were all moves that the pokémon would naturally learn on their own. However, Niko started to get frustrated when Lauren would interrupt on occasion to give him advice. Usually he would respond with a frown or glare in her direction, which generally halted her attempts to help.

Even though Niko and Lauren were not on the best of terms, for whatever reason, their pokémon were. Haunter loved hanging out with the other pokémon, and quickly forged a friendship with JJ's growlithe and marill; chimchar enjoyed the company of Brittany's combusken and wartortle, and budew quickly found things in common with Niko's turtwig. Otherwise, the pokémon seemed cordial at the very least with one another, which could not be said of some of their trainers.

Brittany and Lauren spent a fair amount of time working on potential contest performances, much like she did with JJ back in Hoenn. For Lauren, it also doubled as practice for her gym matches, since it allowed her to experiment with potential new moves and combinations that could prove useful in a gym battle. Brittany continued to work with her spheal on aurora beam, while combusken was beginning to learn flamethrower, pikachu was learning thunderbolt, and tangela with stun spore. She began to find success in teaching the moves, but struggled with making them useful enough to take them far enough in a contest.

Lauren, on the other hand, spent much of her time teaching budew new moves. Her haunter, she gathered, was quite skillful as it was in battling and had the contest performances down-pat. Her chimchar was busy playing with the other pokémon, and its trainer hardly minded it, since Lauren had the belief that playing was just as helpful as training in most regards. Lauren, for battling purposes, wanted budew's absorb to get stronger and eventually become mega drain. For contest purposes, she figured that bullet seed might work well in a potential style performance, depending on what she combined it with.

Lastly JJ spent much of his time grooming and generally taking care of his four pokémon. He would train with them against any of the other three trainers, which kept not just himself but his pokémon in shape. Occasionally, he would run with umbreon or growlithe alongside Niko and his pokémon. He also began to express interest in new recipes for pokémon food, as cooking was one of the many aspects of being a breeder that he had yet to figure out. He didn't have the supplies necessary to experiment, but he did get a sense for the different tastes of the pokémon he was travelling with, and began to mix and match recipes depending on what kind of berries or other fruit might be available to him at the moment.

Overall, the trip to Jubilife only took a couple of days, and the four of them were quite glad to be back. Since they had arrived around midday, Niko figured that they could be back on the road by dinner time, but Lauren thought it was unnecessary to leave so late.

"Don't you want to sleep on a real bed, Niko?" Lauren asked, peering up at Niko with her dark eyes.

"Well, yes of course, who doesn't? But that's not the point."

"Oh, then what is?"

"You and Brittany need to be in Floaroma Town in a few days, too, and we don't want _you_ to miss a contest, now do we?"

"It's only a few hours, though! We can make that up as long as you don't spend an extra three hours during every meal training!"

"Hey, don't snap at me because I'm actually trying to get better!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lauren shouted, standing on her toes to get closer to Niko's eye level, but failed.

"It means maybe you should actually train your chimchar more!" Niko shouted back. Lauren got back onto her feet, looking hurt.

"Don't you _ever_ criticize how I train my pokémon."

"Err…sorry…"

"You're not, and you know it," Lauren said, turning to Brittany and "accidentally" whipping her hair at Niko, hitting his neck. "C'mon, let's go shop for your contest outfit."

Brittany nodded, giving Niko and unsympathetic glare before walking down one of the main streets of Jubilife City. JJ and Niko followed them, eventually reaching a mall. Lauren and Brittany went in search of a clothing store, leaving the boys completely alone.

"Whaddya want to do?" JJ asked, looking over at Niko, who was busy studying the map of the mall.

"No clue. There's nothing I want or need, really."

"Well, how about we go to a bookstore?"

Niko turned to JJ, shocked. "You've never expressed interest in books."

"Well, they have magazines there. That's what I'm looking for," Seeing Niko still confused, JJ elaborated. "Cooking magazines. I want to work on new recipes for pokéfood. Who knows, maybe some of them will give your pokémon extra energy in battle?"

"Yeah, who knows…" Niko replied as they located the bookstore and proceeded down to the second floor. Once inside the bookstore, JJ immediately walked to the magazines section to look for cooking-related articles, while Niko poured himself into other sections of the store. As a student, he was always interested in history, and spent a fair amount of time reading history books as a young teenager. Besides that, he enjoyed fiction, particular fantasy and science fiction. After touring those three sections, he found a book on Sinnoh's legends that he might find interesting, as well as a cook book for JJ, particularly on a type of food called a "poffins." Handing it to JJ, the curly blonde immediately put down the magazine he was skimming to take a look.

"Niko, this looks great! Thanks!" He said. "What'd you get?" Niko held out the book, which was purple with an ink black spine. It had no cover, only the title. " _The Legends of Space-Time_. Interesting."

"Figured it'd be worth looking at. Y'know how Rowan said Sinnoh was full of legends. Might as well look more into it."

"I agree," JJ said, "C'mon, let's buy these and head off."

The boys then decided to have lunch at the food court. Sitting down in front of two plates of burgers, they made light conversation for much of the lunch until JJ brought Lauren up.

"So, what do you think of her? I mean, we all _know_ know, but what's your impression of her?"

Niko looked up from his meal at JJ, an eyebrow raised. "Well, she _seems_ nice, but I don't know. She just rubs me the wrong way."

"She's not Fay, is she?" JJ asked, sounding somewhat sympathetic.

"What? No, of course she isn't. And she isn't Jake, either. I don't know what it is about her. We just got off on the wrong foot, I guess," Niko continued to think about it. "I mean, I think at times she can be rude, noisy, disrespectful of my space, you name it."

"Well, regardless, she's pretty, wouldn't you agree?"

Hearing the comment, Niko nearly choked on the soda he was drinking. "W-what!?" He asked.

"You heard me. I have someone I'm interested in already, as you know, but it's hard to deny, she is cute at least."

"I mean, I _guess_ so. But I have no interest in her at all," Niko said, his throat burning slightly. The thought of him and Lauren together, in any romantic way, appalled him. Particularly after his failed romantic advance towards Melinda, the last thing he wanted was another rejection, especially from someone he was _travelling_ with. "Even if I did like her, there's no way I'd do anything about it. We're travelling together now, why would we even attempt that?"

"Well, Brittany did," JJ replied.

"Does that count, though? We both got over it, and now we're like, best friends. Look, I hardly know Lauren, and I hardly like her. Let's end this discussion now."

JJ nodded, not wanting to piss Niko off in the same way Lauren had on several occasions in the past few days. An hour later, Lauren and Brittany found the two as they sat reading at their table.

"There you are!" Lauren shouted in her high-pitched voice. "We've been looking all over for you."

"Oh, I was _so_ worried you wouldn't find us…" Niko said sarcastically, not removing his eyes from his book.

"Oh, shut it. We found something for Brittany, finally," She said, leering playfully at the brunette, who held a bag in her hand with her new outfit.

"Can we see it?" JJ asked.

"Nope!" Lauren shouted back in a friendly manner. "You'll just have to wait and see in Floaroma! Now, we should probably get some food, too. I'm starving!" The two girls walked over to one of the food stands while JJ and Niko continued their reading.

* * *

The group elected to stay in Jubilife City for the rest of the day, overriding Niko's desire to get to Floaroma as quickly as possible. The four continued to talk throughout the afternoon and evening, even going out to a restaurant for a change in downtown Jubilife. The following morning, they resumed their journey well rested.

The path to Floaroma Town ran through route 204. It wasn't as heavily forested as route 203 was, but was far hillier, with some of the hills looking more like small mountains off in the distance. During the first day, the group largely repeated their routine from route 203, with Niko consciously trying to train _less_ before and after meals, self-conscious of what Lauren yelled at him during their argument the previous day.

On the second day, the group was having lunch in the shade provided by a rather large tree. The pokémon were outside eating one of JJ's new recipes from a magazine he bought in Jubilife. JJ and Lauren were chatting while Niko and Brittany talked during their meal.

"So, you told me Niko has gotten to the Top 8 in _two_ Pokémon Leagues?" Lauren asked.

"Indeed. He's a pretty impressive trainer," JJ added. "You should have seen some of his battles, though. Brittany, remember when he and Fay battled in Johto?"

"Oh yeah, Fay's charizard versus Niko's feraligatr?" The brunette said, turning around to face JJ. "That was intense! They both activated abilities they had no idea they had."

"Really?" Lauren asked. JJ and Brittany then went into detail about Niko's Silver Conference battle against Fay. Niko shifted his eyes over to Lauren, who seemed thoroughly impressed. "Well then, guess I need to see for myself. Niko, I challenge you to a battle."

Niko nearly choked on his sandwich in response. "Really?" Lauren nodded, seeming determined for him to prove his worth. "Fine," He turned to his team, all of whom were sitting down, finished with their food. "Any of you three want to battle?"

Shinx didn't seem up for the challenge, and turtwig had fallen into a food coma, as it had clearly enjoyed JJ's new recipe. Piplup, however, didn't want to back down from the challenge.

"One-on-one?" Niko asked curiously. Lauren nodded, summoning her budew. _Oh, great. Of course she'll want an advantage…_ Niko thought to himself as they walked out into the plains beyond the edge of the forest. After making enough space between them, emulating a battlefield, they began the battle. "Piplup, let's show Lauren and budew how strong we are! Run forward and use bubble while running!"

"Budew, wait," Lauren cautioned. The penguin pokémon was fast, faster than she had thought. However, she was ready. "Stun spore!"

The bud pokémon opened the top of its body and released a stream of yellow spores, which luckily collided with piplup's bubbles, causing both to break. In the resulting cloud of spores and water, piplup rushed forward and, on Niko's command, successfully used peck. Its glowing beak slammed into an unsuspecting budew, knocking it backwards. Lauren commanded it to use absorb, but piplup struck with peck once more, disrupting the move and knocking the grass type further back.

"Now piplup, spray it with bubble!" Niko commanded. The penguin pokémon released a steady flow of bubbles from its beak, overwhelming budew, who tried to concentrate on using absorb.

"Budew, remember our training the past couple of days…use bullet seed!" Lauren shouted. Budew nodded, and suddenly a series of glowing green seeds shot out of its mouth at piplup, popping the bubbles in the space between. The penguin pokémon shot backwards, rolling along the grassy field under it. "Now, absorb!" Lauren cried out. The top of budew's body opened up, revealing vines that began to glow bright green. Piplup yelped out, its energy being sapped from it. Budew continued for several more seconds until Lauren commanded it to use bullet seed again.

"Piplup, don't give up. We can do this…" Niko said calmly. Piplup nodded, slowly getting back to its feet, its vision slightly blurry. It then felt the full force of bullet seed knock it backwards, onto the ground. Slowly, it got back up again and ran towards budew, stumbling a little halfway to the bud pokémon, but got back up and, with all of its strength, rushed forward to use peck. "Yeah piplup! Use peck!"

"Budew, bullet seed!" Lauren commanded plainly. The grass type released a third round of rapid-fire seeds which knocked it back to the ground. Piplup attempted to once again get up, but was too exhausted, making budew the winner.

Niko ran over to piplup and held it in his arms. "You did great, piplup. We'll get 'em next time, alright?"

Piplup simply looked away from Niko, jumping out of his arms and walking back to their small camp near the shady tree. Niko nodded before turning to Lauren.

"Good match, Lauren," He said, holding out his hand.

"Yeah, same to you—huh?" Just then, budew began to glow bright white. It grew a couple inches in height, but its vines unfurled and grew outwards, blossoming into roses of red and blue. Its head popped out from a leafy torso, and three spikes appeared in equal distance from one another atop its head. Niko, JJ, and Brittany were all familiar with it—budew had evolved into roselia. "What's this?" Lauren asked, pulling out her pokédex, which was a similar model to Niko's, but a blue color instead of red:

" _Roselia, the thorn pokémon. Grass and poison type. The more healthy the roselia, the more pleasant its flowers' aroma. Its scent deeply relaxes people_."

"It's beautiful!" She said, picking up her roselia and hugging it. "You did so great, roselia!" She looked at Niko. "I believe you made it to Top 8, because I believe Brittany and JJ, but you definitely need to keep training."

Niko's jaw dropped to the ground. "You're kidding me…you berated me a couple days ago for training too much!"

"Yeah, because you were nagging about us being late to Floaroma Town…"

Niko slammed his palm into his face out of frustration. "Fine. Whatever you say!" He walked back over to his other friends and sat down next to shinx and turtwig, both of whom watched the battle and looked impressed with piplup's determination. Niko, in his frustration, looked over at Lauren, who stuck her tongue at him in a teasing way. _This is going to be a loooong journey._ He thought to himself, laying back into in the grass and staring up at the light blue sky through the web of branches above him.


	8. A flower for you

**Episode 8: A flower for you**

As the group entered the gates of Floaroma, Lauren picked up a flower—a small, yellow flower—from the "welcoming garden," smelled it, and turned to Niko. "Here you go!" She said cheerfully.

Niko eyed the flower for a moment and gingerly plucked it from Lauren's fingers. Nonplussed, he looked around at JJ and Brittany, unsure of what to say. He didn't want to sound rude, but he didn't really want the flower either.

"Err, thanks…" He said, placing it in his pocket, with much of the stem still sticking out, and continued walking on, trying to ignore the gesture.

Floaroma Town is, as its name might suggest, a town based entirely around flowers. They are everywhere. The group arrived the day of the contest and immediately visited the Pokémon Center to relax for an hour and prepare for the upcoming competition, in addition to healing their pokémon and putting their bags in one of the rooms provided by the Center.

After having lunch, Brittany and Lauren immediately left for the Contest Hall while Niko and JJ stayed behind for a little while longer, as they didn't necessarily need to be there early. Niko looked around the Pokémon Center for a bit, noticing how different it was compared to other Centers. There were flower pots _everywhere_ : at the front desk, at every dining booth, on every coffee table in the small lobby, at the front door, the list goes on. And many of the flowers were different shapes, sizes, and colors. Yet, in some ways they all served a particular purpose in their placement around the building.

"This town really loves its flowers."

"Just like you loved Lauren's, right?" JJ said teasingly.

"Absolutely not," Niko admitted. "I didn't see why it was necessary."

"She was just being friendly, Niko. You don't have to always be hostile to her."

"I know, and I'm not trying to be. It's just become a habit, I guess."

"Well, you might want to consider breaking that habit. We're travelling with her for a while, if all goes well. Brittany and I liked her presence, and _all_ of our pokémon—even yours—like her pokémon. So, whether you like it or not, you have to be cordial and respectful towards her."

Niko sighed. "You're right. I'll lay off of her, as long as she lays off of me."

"You're just being sensitive. Suck it up, she isn't making brutally savage comments."

Again, Niko nodded in agreement. He knew that he had to at least be nicer to Lauren, regardless of how much she annoyed him or criticized him. Moments later, they both got up and walked to the Contest Hall, which was conveniently down the street from the Pokémon Center.

The Contest Hall was arranged in a similar style to the Pokémon Center—flowers everywhere. On the outside, it looked like any ordinary small convention hall—a two story building with a large, glass-covered entrance under a balcony that overlooked the surrounding area. Niko and JJ quickly found their way to the stands, and waited patiently as more people entered behind them before the contest began.

Meanwhile, Brittany and Lauren were sitting in the backroom, dressed up and ready to go. Lauren was in her usual blue flower dress, and Brittany was in her new outfit. It was a sleeveless sparkling ruby red dress that went halfway down her shins. The sparkles only covered the part of the dress above the waist, with a band of light gold sequin-esque material that wrapped around the waist. All in all, she seemed pleased with it, as did Lauren, although the brunette had thought it was too much when she first put it on.

"Psh, don't worry, sometimes the flashier the better."

"Then why aren't you wearing something flashy?"

"I don't want to. It's not really my style. Plus, this flower dress looks cute on me."

Brittany smiled in agreement. "Well, there's certainly less people in this contest than Jubilife. I think we both could go far. That is, if I can even make it past the performance stage."

"Oh you will this time, for sure. And then we can fight it out in the Battle Stage!" Lauren said, raising a fist and smirked.

Brittany laughed. "I look forward to that."

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Floaroma Town Pokémon Contest! I'm your host, Marian, and we've got quite the show for you today! We have coordinators from all over Sinnoh and beyond competing with style and grace befitting a coordinator. For those unfamiliar, let me go through the different stages of a contest:

"The first round is the Performance Round. Each coordinator dresses up and enters a pokémon to perform. Coordinators may use as many moves as they would like within the three-minute time limit. In the second round—the Battle Round—coordinators will face off against one another using the same pokémon from before, or a different one if they so choose to. The winner of the Battle Round will be granted the Contest Ribbon. Now, without further ado, join me in welcoming our first coordinator from Canalave City—Lauren!"

The blue-haired woman approached the stage in her matching flower dress. Sending out her roselia, she enamored the relatively small crowd (relative to Jubilife, that is) with a combination of water spout and bullet seed, which somehow caused the seeds—which were moving far slower than they did during its battle with Niko's piplup—to grow magically in midair into small flowers of varying colors from the streams of water roselia was emitting from each of the roses on its hands. Niko and JJ had both seem Lauren practice this technique on their way to Floaroma Town after budew had evolved, but they had never seen it work as successfully as it did during the contest. The only problem was that the flowers burst into dust seconds after growing from the seed, and so the stage was covered in random piles of green dust, which hardly looked attractive given the performance that created it.

The crowd clapped loudly in applause, clearly ignoring the single problem with Lauren and roselia's performance. The coordinator bowed and walked into the backroom, returning roselia along the way.

She sat down on the bench next to Brittany, sighing loudly. Oddly enough, it sounded like Niko after he had a tough battle.

"You alright?" Brittany asked in a pleasant tone.

"Yeah, we messed up at the end though. Hopefully it works out in the end," Lauren said, running her fingers through the teal streaks in her hair.

"I'm sure it will. That was an impressive performance."

Lauren turned to Brittany with a sincere smile. "Thanks, Brit."

Suddenly, Brittany's name was called, and it was thus her turn. She approached the stage and immediately summoned for tangela, who hadn't participated in a Pokémon Contest for some time.

"Tangela, use poisonpowder and vine whip!" Brittany shouted. The vine pokémon opened the tangle of vines surrounding its body and emitted a steady stream of purple spores from its body. Then, as the powder sat in midair, tangela whipped out half a dozen vines from around its body and shot them in every direction, swirling around the powder in the air to create some sort of twister effect in six different places. She finished by commanding it to use mega drain to soak the powder back into its body, which didn't seem to harm it. Brittany and tangela finished by taking a bow.

"Wow, Brittany sure looked nice," JJ said observantly. "The red seems to work for her," Niko nodded in agreement, excited to see how his friend did this time.

"Great job!" Lauren praised as Brittany sat down next to her.

"Eh, thanks. I used that technique back in Hoenn, and it worked then, so why not now?" Lauren nodded, and the two looked up to see the last performance before the Battle Stage. Marian then announced the final four coordinators that proceed on to the Battle Stage. As it turned out, Brittany and Lauren both made it, and would be competing against one another first.

The two young women looked at each other and smiled. "So we actually get to fight it out, like I said we would," She held her hand out.

"That we do," Brittany replied, clasping Lauren's hand. They shook, and then exited the backroom for their battle.

"And for our first battle in this stage, please welcome Brittany and Lauren!" Marian announced.

"Wonder who you're rooting for," JJ said, eying his friend.

"Honestly, JJ!" Niko said, shifting around so he was facing the curly blonde trainer. "They're both great coordinators, either one could win this contest!" JJ shrugged and leaned back in his seat.

"Remember ladies, you have five minutes to either defeat the other, or show off more stylistic moves than the other," Marian explained. "You may begin when you're ready."

"Roselia, you're up!" Lauren commanded.

"Combusken, I choose you!" Brittany commanded. The young fowl pokémon burst from its pokéball, its claws already releasing small embers. "Use fire spin!"

"Roselia, water sport!" Lauren shouted. The thorn pokémon shot streams of water out of its red and blue roses into the air, shielding itself from the fire spin and dousing the fire. "Now, stun spore!"

"Block the stun spore with fire spin!" Brittany commanded. The fire type released yet another fiery blast at its opponent, burning up the yellow spores in the process. "Now, rush forward and use double kick!"

Combusken charged at roselia, parts of its claws and talons catching on fire, which seemed to speed it up. It then spun sideways through the air, slamming both of its feet onto roselia's thorny head, but was nonetheless effective. It then released a stream of fire—fire spin—at close range onto roselia, clearly giving the thorn pokémon a burn or two.

"Great job, combusken! Now, use—" Brittany paused. Combusken was on one knee, clearly in pain. Its body was pulsating a light purple color. "Oh no, you're poisoned…" She panicked for a moment, and then tried to regain her composure. "Coordinators don't panic. Combusken, use flamethrower!"

"Roselia, water sport!" Lauren commanded. By this time, both coordinator's bars on the monitor were roughly even, with each roughly two-thirds empty. Combusken then released a jet of fire from its mouth right before roselia landed its water sport. The grass type pokémon immediately shot backwards, rolling across the field until it fainted at Lauren's feet.

"Roselia is unable to battle, combusken is the winner! Brittany will now be moving on to the final round!" Marian shouted.

"Roselia, return," Lauren said, oddly enough with a smile. "You did your best. We were at a disadvantage, and you made up for it."

Brittany smiled at Lauren briefly before running over to combusken and picking it up. Returning it to its pokéball, she rushed out to get it checked up on before her next match.

Minutes later, Lauren found her friend sitting outside of a nurse's office. "How's combusken?" She asked, sitting down next to Brittany.

"Combusken'll be fine. Poison is surprisingly easy to heal, according to Nurse Joy. But I'm confused, how _did_ combusken get poisoned? Roselia doesn't know any poison moves."

"It's called 'poison point'—roselia's ability—and it basically poisons its opponent on contact. A nasty ability, if you'd ask me, but it comes in handy."

"Yeah, you're telling me," Brittany said. "Anyways, I need to get back. My match is probably starting soon. Great battle, by the way."

"You too!" Lauren said. "And, I can wait for combusken for you, if you don't mind."

Brittany turned around. Her hazel eyes sparkled for a moment before she nodded and ran back to the stage.

"And now for our final match, Brittany from Vermilion City and Jason from Eterna City! The winner will receive the contest ribbon!" Marian said as Brittany and Jason both approached the stage.

"Pikachu, I choose you!" Brittany shouted, summoning her electric mouse pokémon.

"Mothim, you're up!" Jason shouted. "Use hidden power!"

"Pikachu, volt tackle!" Brittany commanded. Pikachu's body lit up in a coat of electricity as it rushed forward at mothim, who was generating glowing white orbs around its body and summoning them one at a time. Each time pikachu dodged the attack with volt tackle, its speed increasing with the more electricity it was generating. It then launched itself into the air at mothim and crashed into it, knocking the moth pokémon backwards.

"Psybeam!" Jason cried out.

"Pikachu, use thunderbolt!" The lightning dropped from the sky as psybeam was about to hit pikachu, creating an explosion that knocked the mouse pokémon backwards. "Now, use volt tackle once more!"

"Pika! Pika pika pika pika pika pika pika-chuuu!" Pikachu shouted as it launched itself once more at mothim.

"Protect!" The moth pokémon generated a shield around itself that halted pikachu in its tracks. "Now psybeam!"

"Dodge it pikachu, and use dizzy punch!" Brittany commanded. Pikachu burst forward, launching back into the air a third time before slamming a fist into mothim, knocking it into the ground. "Finish it off with thunderbolt!"

"Pi-kaaa!" The electric mouse shouted as it released a burst of electricity at mothim, defeating it.

"Mothim is unable to battle, pikachu wins! The victory goes to Brittany from Vermilion City!" Marian shouted. "Brittany is the winner of the Floaroma Contest!"

Brittany's eyes lit up in excitement. Pikachu turned around and ran over to its trainer, leaping up into the brunette's arms and hugging it tightly.

"We did it, pikachu! We did it!" She said softly. Marian walked over with an orange contest ribbon in her hand.

"Brittany, congrats on the win. You've certainly earned it."

The coordinator took the ribbon in her hand and showed it to pikachu, who was cradled in her other arm. The electric mouse looked at in in awe, realizing what it really helped it trainer earn.

Lauren stood out in the lobby with combusken, who was fully healed, Niko, and JJ when Brittany arrived, holding her orange contest ribbon in the palm of her hand. She showed it to her friends and to combusken, who cheered happily.

"Combusken should be fine, but it needs to rest for a couple of days. Nurse Joy said no overexertion and it'll recover," Lauren said with a smile. "Congrats, by the way," She embraced Brittany.

"Thanks, Lauren," She then looked over to Niko and JJ, who gave her a hug and a high-five, respectively. "Now, on to Eterna City!"

"On to Eterna City!" Niko repeated cheerfully. He then looked to Lauren, who nodded as well with a determined look in her eyes.


	9. Valley Windworks

**Episode 9: Valley Windworks**

Niko looked up at the specks of light breaking through the space in between the tree leaves above him. He had just woken up from a quick nap on Route 205, and found himself surrounded by his pokémon—turtwig, shinx, and piplup. Looking around, he noticed his three friends all sitting up and watching their pokémon play around near the edge of a river.

Their next destination was Eterna City, which according to their estimations would take roughly a week to get to. Most of the trip would take place on route 205, a valley route in between a river and a small mountain range. The four trainers had spent much of the previous day walking along the river that led east of Floaroma Town, stopping often to appreciate the view or to simply relax as they were that day.

"Sleep well?" Brittany asked, turning over to Niko, who was rubbing his eyes carefully.

"Yeah, didn't expect to dose off like that. Apparently, these guys didn't, either," Niko said, gazing at his pokémon with admiration. The previous day Niko got back to training with them, which included their usual running and practicing new moves. Niko was impressed with the effort his pokémon were beginning to put into their training.

He always knew turtwig would show a determination to get better, partly out of its loyalty to Niko, but also its budding rivalry with its teammate, shinx, who was beginning to show a similar level of resolve. However, it was piplup that surprised Niko the most. The little penguin put in far more effort than any of his pokémon or Lauren's, constantly getting up to run and get faster while practicing its peck attack, which it had recently mastered in a battle with Lauren's budew-turned-roselia.

Lauren, on the other hand, was seeing similar interest in training from her pokémon. Haunter was working on the potency of its confuse ray and hypnosis attacks—in order to make them last longer—while roselia was practicing its mega drain for similar reasons. Chimchar, on the other hand, still found more enjoyment in playing than undergoing hard training like the other pokémon. It would often be found running around with JJ's pokémon, who occasionally battled one another or just simply ran around in the grassy fields of route 205. This lack of effort hardly disturbed Lauren, who wanted the chimp pokémon to work at its own pace rather than being forced to train for the sake of it, which often caused her to butt heads with Niko, who would criticize her for not taking it seriously. These small skirmishes between the quarreling trainers would end with Brittany or JJ getting in between the two, forcing them to stop.

"So," Niko said as he got up, accidentally waking turtwig up in the process. "Wanna get back to walking?"

JJ, Brittany, and Lauren all nodded in agreement. Standing up, they all returned their pokémon and packs their bags before hoisting them over their shoulders and continuing on their journey.

"So Niko," Lauren began, breaking the silence between the four of them. "Got any siblings?"

"Oh, yeah. A younger brother, Jake. He's on his own journey in Kanto right now after travelling with us for a year in Hoenn."

"Oh, cool. What's he like? How old is he?"

"Turned 12 last spring. But he's ready to travel on his own, I think."

"Well, 12 is young compared to you, right? I mean, you left at 17."

"Yeah?" Niko replied in a slightly accusatory tone. "Your point?"

"Oh! No, nothing. Just found it interesting is all…"

"Jake's a really good kid," Brittany said, saving the conversation. "He never gave us any problems when we were travelling. Usually kids his age are, well, a little unruly," She wasn't wrong. Niko had met some of Jake's friends from school. They were like tiny savages.

"Where'd he get _that_ from?" Lauren said, ribbing Niko with her elbow. Niko winced, turned to Lauren with annoyance.

"He got it from my parents. I'd like to think they have raised us both pretty well, but you'd obviously disagree with that, wouldn't you?" Niko replied, looking at Lauren through his peripheral vision. She simply shook her hand and grinned.

"Can't take a joke, I see."

"I thought you were being serious!" Niko said in protest. "Anyways, do you have any siblings?"

Lauren shook her head. "Nope. Only child. I always wished to have a brother or sister, though. Would have been nice."

"What's it like being an only child?" Niko asked for the sake of the conversation. He had known what being the sole child in a family was like, albeit only for a short period of time.

"Well, it can get lonely. But for those of us who are more introverted, it isn't necessarily bad."

"There's no way you're an introvert," Niko said in surprise. Lauren looked up at him with her dark eyes and nodded. "You're always so outgoing, though!"

"Is that a compliment?" Niko shook his head. "Well, I _am_ sort of introverted, but I'm used to playing it off because growing up people didn't seem to care for that. If you weren't outgoing where I grew up, you had no social life. And, well, you know what growing up is like, obviously. You want to feel cared for. You want attention and validation from others."

"I suppose so. But it isn't always a bad thing to not constantly need attention from others. Sometimes it's just better to let your social batteries recharge."

"Oh, of course it is. But that wasn't really my point," Lauren said decisively, which sounded rather intimidating to Niko and forced him to end the conversation.

Lauren then turned to Brittany and JJ. "You two got any siblings?"

"I have an older sister, but that's it," JJ mentioned.

"Older brother," Brittany said with a sincere smile.

"Wow, what's it like being the younger siblings?" Lauren asked in genuine interest.

"Well, it's nice to know you have someone closer to your age that has more experience in life than you do," Brittany stated. She was about to continue when they all simultaneously looked up and stopped.

In front of them was a canyon littered with massive wind turbines that looked to be roughly 100 feet in height. At the base of the canyon was a building that looked like a laboratory with walls surrounding it and a gate. Niko had surely never seen anything like it.

"What is this place?" He said with wonder.

"Valley Windworks, I think," Lauren replied. "I've never visited, but I've heard of people mentioning it. I think a family member of mine used to work here, but I'm not sure. Anyways, Valley Windworks is known for providing power for a lot of western Sinnoh by using these wind turbines. You see, when they spin they generate energy from the wind and convert it into electrical power."

"Woah…" JJ and Brittany said simultaneously. "We don't really have that kind of stuff in Kanto."

"That's because we have the Power Plant," Niko reminded them, thinking back to their visit to Kanto's power source several years back. "But still, this is really cool. Think we could go inside?"

Lauren shrugged. "Don't know, maybe? Worth a shot," They walked down the road to the front gate, which was unlocked. As they passed through, a man in a lab coat was walking alongside an ampharos who appeared to be exhausted from something. The man turned to them with a curious look.

"What do you kids want?" He asked in a friendly tone.

"We are interested in checking out the wind turbines. My friends here have never seen these before," Lauren explained, motioning her hand to the other three with a smile.

"Oh. Well, sorry to disappoint, but we're closed today. Been having problems with keeping the wind turbines running recently. This here ampharos hasn't been feeling well, and hasn't been of much help recently."

"Is everything alright?" JJ asked. "Maybe we can help?"

"Thanks, but I've got taken care of. My wife is Nurse Joy, and I was about to travel to Floaroma Town to visit her and see if she can nurse my ampharos back to health."

He was about to walk away when a young woman popped out of a nearby door. "Dad! Are you going to Floaroma Town?" The man turned around and nodded. "Can you bring back something for the drifloon? They're getting hungry."

"Sure, Marnie. Now I've got to go. Nice meeting you four. Name's Karsten, by the way."

Karsten then walked his ampharos over to a nearby car and drove out of the front gate, leaving the group standing in front of the Valley Windworks building with Marnie.

"Are you here to visit?" She asked. She looked like a spitting image of her mother, Nurse Joy, with her pink hair arranged in a similar way—two loops in the back and front-facing curls covering her forehead. The group nodded, and Marnie led them inside. "So, have you ever visited her, or any other wind farms?"

"No, three of us are from Kanto, where the Power Plant is the major source of energy," Niko explained. "Do you work here with your father?"

"Yeah! My drifloon and I help out whenever we can. My little sister—Paige—is training to become a nurse just like our mother, but I'm far more interested in what my father does. Where in Kanto are you from?"

"Pallet Town," Niko said, and the two continued the conversation for a bit before reaching a large room crowded with various generators and other machinery, presumably for harnessing the wind energy provided by the turbines. "So is this where everything goes?"

"Sort of. The energy from the turbines first comes through here, and we have specific machines that take it to other parts of the region. This building is dedicated to transferring energy to the western half of Sinnoh, which is everything west of Mt. Coronet. The building next to us—to the right of the front gate—transfers energy to the eastern half of Sinnoh."

"So is this building identical to the other one, then?" Lauren asked. Marnie nodded slightly.

"Sort of. There are minor differences, one being that the other building is slightly larger since there is more need for electricity on the other side of Mt. Coronet, what with there being more cities. But yeah, that's the basics," As she said this the room suddenly grew dark. "What the…?"

"Power must've gone out…" JJ said plainly. "Niko, your shinx can light up, can't it?"

"Yeah, good idea JJ! Shinx, I choose you!" Niko said, and with a brief flash of red light emanating from a pokéball came out the tiny teal and black feline pokémon. "Hey shinx, I need you to use charge and light up the area around us, alright? As you can tell, we can't really see."

"You do the same, pikachu!" Brittany said, summoning her electric mouse and repeating the directions. Suddenly the room was lit from the two small sources. "That's better. Now, Marnie, how can we help you fix this?"

"Err, I don't know…let me think," She said down in a nearby chair and pondered for a moment. Shinx and pikachu, in an attempt to conserve their energy, dimmed the light they were generating using the electricity in their bodies. Suddenly, she came to an idea. "Alright, follow me."

The five of them and the two pokémon ran out of the room and down a hallway, eventually reaching a door on the left. Opening it, Marnie revealed a small room with a generator sitting unused.

"This is a backup generator. Might not be much, but if we can get enough electricity running in it to start it up, maybe we can restore the power. I'll be honest, though, I don't know that much about this stuff yet. My father hardly tells me what to do, or explains it to me so that I can understand what I'm doing."

Niko tapped her shoulder. "We trust you, Marnie. You probably know more than you think, and surely more than any of us. Now, how can we help you generate electricity? Do we hook shinx and pikachu up to something?"

Marnie smiled sincerely. "As a matter of fact, yes you do. Here," She led Niko and shinx over to the other end of the room. Picking up some cords attached to some sort of sticky tab attached at the end. She placed them on pikachu and shinx in specific places, then stood back up and turned to Niko and Brittany. "So, all they have to do is start generating electricity as if they were using an electric move, and voila! We'll have energy soon enough."

"So what about the wind turbines, are those still working?" Lauren asked.

"Good question. We should go and check that out. Can someone watch the electric pokémon?"

Niko nodded. "I got it, you all go," The four others nodded and filed out of the room, with Marnie looking back as she did so. They then ran back down the hall through the dark until the lights came back on and they searched for the back door.

"Ah, that makes sense…" Marnie said as she ran over to the problem site. "This freakin' came unplugged! Who would do that…" As she finished posing the question, she saw someone running around to the far side of the building. "Hey! You! Come back!" She shouted, running off after the man. Lauren, JJ, and Brittany quickly followed after her, eventually reaching the side of the building to see a hooded figure dressed in all black clothing standing several yards away from Marnie. "Who are you!?"

"Just someone who enjoys a little chaos here and there," It said in a dark, clearly voice adjusted, tone. They could see a smirk under the hood, with bright white teeth shaped in a grin of sorts.

"I'll asked again—who _are_ you?"

"We should call the authorities…" JJ said. Then the hooded figure jumped into the air, throwing out a pokéball from under it, releasing a salamence. Then the two flew off, but not before destroying a nearby wind turbine, causing it to crash into the river below it.

"Was that…?" Brittany asked, turning to JJ, who shook his head.

"Nope, she wouldn't have any reason to be here," He said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Who!?" Marnie and Lauren said simultaneously.

"No one of importance, because _that_ wasn't her. She would have recognized us," JJ said. "C'mon, let's go. The threat's clearly gone, but you do need to tighten any security that you have," He said, looking at Marnie.

"We just need security, as we have none. But you're right—let me go fix the problem in the back and I'll meet you inside. The pokémon must be tired by now.

* * *

Half an hour later, the group plus Marnie were sitting around a table having an early dinner. JJ made a specialty recipe for shinx and pikachu, as well as make something for Marnie's three drifloons as a way of thanking her as well. Curious, Niko pulled out his pokédex for the small balloon-shaped pokémon:

" _Drifloon, the balloon pokémon. Ghost and flying type. Because of the way it floats aimlessly, an old folktale calls it a 'signpost for wandering spirits.'_ "

"Oh, JJ, you don't have to thank us. _We_ should be thanking _you_!" Marnie said as JJ handed her drifloons three bowls of pokéfood.

"No no, you let us check this place out, and I for one enjoyed it. The only thing that's bothering me is the identity of that person."

"I don't know either, but it's certainly someone you should alert the authorities of. Who knows, maybe others have reported some mysterious hooded person, too," Niko added, looking right at Marnie from across the table.

"I'll do that tonight when my Mom gets home. She has a solid working relationship with the Officer Jenny in Floaroma Town."

Niko and JJ both nodded, finishing their own food. Minutes later, the group got up to leave, thanking Marnie in the process. As they were leaving, Lauren could see a twinkle in Marnie's eye as she said farewell to Niko. Raising an eyebrow, the blue-haired trainer felt oddly possessive for a moment, but was unsure as to why.

Exiting Valley Windworks, the group continued in a northwards direction for a couple of hours until they hit the base of the same river from earlier, and decided to camp out for the night, sleeping soundly after a long day of travelling.

* * *

 **Author's Note: I am quite aware of how little I understand about the physics of energy and electricity, and I made it kind of clear in this episode, so please bear with me. I just wanted to do one episode on Valley Windworks, as it is a landmark in the Sinnoh region and does deserve some attention. I hope you enjoyed, though!**


	10. Adventures in the Eterna Forest

**Episode 10: Adventures in the Eterna Forest**

"I'm telling you, going through the Eterna Forest will get us lost!" Lauren shouted at Niko.

"Yeah, it might, but it's the quickest way to Eterna City! And hey, why not see more of Sinnoh? From what JJ was telling us, it sounds like a landmark to me!"

"As an _actual_ native of Sinnoh, I can attest to the fact that it is not a landmark! There are stories of people disappearing in that forest! Maybe you want to disappear—and spare us the daily arguments—but I sure as hell don't want to! It's a dense forest that, from reports by other people, not many people get out of safely. I don't know WHY you insist on going through it!"

"Lauren…we have these things called _pokémon._ They are used to protect us!" Niko snapped back. They continued arguing for the next half hour, circling back to the same point over and over again.

"They really never stop, do they?" JJ asked, looking over at Brittany, who had pikachu sitting on her shoulder.

"Nope, have you figured out why they do?"

The curly blonde trainer shook his head. "Absolutely no idea. But hey, it's entertaining sometimes. Those two are pretty merciless with their insults," Brittany simply replied with a chuckle.

Since their adventure at Valley Windworks, the group had been travelling north to Eterna City via route 205. After several days on the road, the four of them were ready to get to the next city, which quickly proved to be a catalyst for another argument between the two gym challengers. Eventually, they elected on travelling through the forest, but on the condition that one of them caught a flying type to help them navigate, as Niko had done on multiple occasions in their previous adventures.

The group took a break for lunch outside of the massive forest. Lauren in particular still felt bitter about having to go inside, and successfully masked it by training with her pokémon while the other put food together for themselves and their pokémon.

"Chimchar, fire off successive embers!" Lauren shouted. The chimp pokémon nodded, opening its mouth and releasing a string of small fireballs at no target in particular. "Great job, but we need to increase the power of it! Keep it up!" She said, guiding her starter pokémon.

"Oh, you're finally training chimchar. Good job!" Niko said, sarcastically holding a thumb up. Lauren turned her head, a wave of blue hair preceding her scowl. Niko simply smiled and shrugged as he placed a bowl down for his three pokémon to share. Sitting down, he placed his hands behind him on the grass as he watched Lauren and her chimchar. The fire type was strong, to be sure, which made him wonder why she never really bothered training the chimp before. _Was it intentional?_ He began to think and, after briefly considering how silly the thought was, shook his head as a way of ignoring it.

Lauren then sat down next to Brittany with chimchar sitting in her lap, and the two ate as if they were starving. After they finished, both lay back in the grass and watched the clouds roll by. After roughly half an hour, the four got back up and entered the Eterna Forest.

Like the Viridian and Ilex Forests, the Eterna Forest was massive and dense enough that light hardly made its way through the trees. In this way, the air was far colder than on route 205. Immediately Lauren issued a complaint. " _This_ is why we shouldn't have come in here, Niko! It's cold!"

"You'll be fine, Lauren. Also, this is not the reason you gave when we argued over this…" Niko replied, giving his blue-haired companion a bemused look.

"Can you two not argue for a minute?" Brittany asked, stopping the four of them and pointing directly at Niko and Lauren. "Seriously, it's getting on my nerves, however entertaining it might be. You two need to just _shut up_ and get over yourselves. Yeah, it's freaking cold and yes, it's a big forest, but we've been through far worse before, right Niko, JJ? We'll get through this," Brittany then took off her black and red striped sweatshirt and handed it to Lauren, who genuinely looked pleased at the gesture. "You need it more than I do. Now, let's just get through this…"

As Brittany finished talking, the other three noticed a small gray and black bird flying overhead. Remembering the condition that they agreed on, Lauren and Niko both looked at one another and, both whipping out pokéballs, ran off in pursuit of the bird.

"Oh, no…" JJ said. "They really are going to compete over everything…"

Brittany nodded in response. "Of course they will. Of course."

"Chimchar, use ember on it!" Lauren commanded, tossing out her fire type.

"Shinx, outrun chimchar using charge, and run after the bird!" Niko commanded. The flash and chimp pokémon both made a break for it, dodging and weaving through the trees in a serpentine fashion.

The bird—a starly—noticed that it was being pursued and began to pick up the pace, flapping its wings even faster in an attempt to escape its pursuers. However, shinx was far faster, charging up electricity in its fur to make it run faster, similar to Niko's manectric back in Hoenn. Chimchar, on the other hand, stopped and belted out fireballs at both shinx and starly, eventually knocking them both to the ground. Lauren then rushed forward to throw a pokéball at starly, but Niko beat her to it, tossing his out from behind her. The ball crashed onto the ground just in front of the starling pokémon. A flash of red light engulfed the area around it, and starly immediately went into the pokéball. After wiggling a few times, starly released itself from the pokéball, failing to be caught.

"Dammit! Shinx, use bite!"

"Chimchar, tackle shinx to the ground and use ember on starly!" Lauren commanded.

"Lauren, _why_ do you even want starly?" Niko asked. "You didn't want to come through the forest in the first place."

"Because," She said, looking up at Niko, her dark eyes wide, "We said one of us would catch a flying type. I just wanted to be the one to do it. And to fight you for it sounded like fun."

"Oh, bah! Shinx, dodge chimchar and use charge to tackle starly!" Niko commanded. His strategy worked—the flash pokémon leapt into the air and caught starly, ramming it back to the ground as it evaded an attack from chimchar, who then decided to turn towards starly. Just as Lauren commanded it to use fury swipes on the starly, Niko threw a second pokéball at the flying type.

Once more, a flash of red light engulfed the pokémon, bringing it into the red and white ball. It wiggled a few times before clicking, signaling to Niko that he caught it.

He looked at Lauren and smirked before walking over to shinx and the pokéball, which sat on the other side of a rather large network of roots. "Thanks, shinx," He said, petting the electric pokémon before receiving a quick static shock. "Ouch!"

"That's what you get," Lauren said, also walking over to thank chimchar. She picked up the fire type and sat it atop her shoulder. "But congrats all the same. We should probably get back to Brittany and JJ. I'm sure they're worried."

"I'd bet they're pretty happy to be away from us for a minute or two…" Niko muttered. Lauren nodded with a brief giggle as they walked back down the path until they reunited with their friends, who were conversing with a tall, green-haired woman.

"What the hell happened to you two?" JJ asked, raising his voice. "Just getting up and leaving like that!?"

"Listen, JJ, we—I—just caught a flying type. That should help us get through this forest. Also, who's this?" Niko asked, regretfully in an interrogative tone.

"I'm Cheryl. I often come through this forest in search of treasure, but eventually I decided I'd rather help trainers get through the Eterna Forest, as it is not the easiest to traverse. I just so happened to come across your friends, Brittany and JJ, who said they would appreciate the help."

"Oh, well, err, thanks Cheryl. I'm Niko, by the way," He said, extending his hand to greet the stranger. She was roughly his height, with forest-green hair that was pulled into a single, thick braid that hung over her right shoulder. She wore a dress of the same color as her hair, with a light-green cardigan.

"I'm Lauren, and thanks for the help. We could surely use it, thanks to his bonehead and his ideas," She leered at Niko.

"Oh, c'mon guys…" Brittany said, sounding as if she had given up. "Can you cool it for a bit?"

Lauren and Niko both looked at each other, and then back at Brittany, and nodded, albeit with reserve. Cheryl laughed softly under her breath, as if amused by their petty arguments. "No worries, I've seen it all before. Let's get going then," She said, winking at Niko and Lauren, who fumed a little.

The group spent the day walking along with Cheryl, who seemed to have an impressive grasp of the geography of the forest. To be safe, Niko also summoned his starly to fly above the forest and see how far they were, much to the disdain of Brittany and Lauren, who believed it to be disrespectful to Cheryl. After a while, Niko returned starly, particularly when they sat down for dinner.

It was during this time that they learned more about Cheryl's identity. She had once been a treasure hunter, as she was a descendant of them, and spent much of her adult life looking for enchanted honey and other magical objects hidden around the Sinnoh Region. After a while, she ended her search and decided to pursue another goal: helping travelers get through the forest when she wasn't residing in Eterna City. Noticing how tired Niko's starly and shinx were, as well as Lauren's chimchar, she summoned her chansey to heal them up.

"It's useful to have chansey around in case either myself or the people I'm travelling with get hurt."

"Thank you, Cheryl. I really appreciate it, and so do starly and shinx," Niko said, petting his two pokémon. Unlike his other pokémon at the time of their capture, starly seemed to get along well with the others, especially shinx which, at first seemed odd, but Niko figured it was due to the fact that shinx put up a fight with the starling that it had earned starly's respect. In an even odder turn of events, shinx returned the respect for seemingly similar reasons.

"So, how much further do we have to go?" Lauren asked, shivering a little despite wearing Brittany's sweatshirt.

"Maybe a day's worth of walking at most. You'll certainly be in Eterna City tomorrow night, if that helps. That's also considering we spend most of the day walking."

"Yeah Niko, no more of your day-long training sessions," Lauren said in a sassy tone, sticking her tongue out at her travelling companion. Niko shook his head in response before laying down on the ground, clearly more interested in falling asleep. Eventually, all five of them and their pokémon were fast asleep.

* * *

Niko woke up with a startle the following morning, feeling exhausted. His head was aching, for whatever reason, and he reached over to his water bottle and eagerly downed it, feeling a little better from doing so. Looking around, he realized no one else was awake except for piplup, who was sitting against a tree looking at its trainer with a slightly concerned look.

"I'm fine, buddy, if that's what you were wondering," Niko said as he crossed his legs and sat on his sleeping bag. "You alright? You're the only one awake."

Piplup simply nodded before getting on its feet and waddling over to a tree off in the distance, where it began to practice its peck attack, presumably to not wake the others up from the racketing sound of the move. Smiling, Niko got up and joined the penguin, watching as it viciously hacked away at the tree. He watched this for another 15 or so minutes before the others began to wake up, at which time piplup stopped and looked up at Brittany, who joined the two.

"Sleep well?" She asked as she sat next to Niko, cross-legged as well.

"I guess so, but I woke up with a headache for some reason. Must've been dehydrated, or maybe a bad dream that I don't remember. Either way, piplup's just been practicing for a bit before you all woke up."

"I see. I've noticed piplup doing this a lot each morning, actually. You're getting much better," Brittany said, grinning at the blue penguin, who shied away from the compliment.

"Piplup's gonna crush the next gym battle, just watch," Niko said, pumping a fist. "Anyways, we should probably start making some food. Wanna help, piplup?"

The penguin hesitated for a moment before nodding and following Niko and Brittany back to the camp, where Cheryl, JJ, and Lauren all woke up, the latter of which seemed to wake up with a slight cold, as she kept sneezing throughout the morning.

"Lauren, here," Cheryl said, handing the blue-haired trainer a small amber-colored bottle. "It's a sample of the honey I've managed to find in this forest. Have a spoonful of that."

Lauren obliged, pulling out one of the spoons they carried with them and struck the dense lake of honey residing inside the bottle with the spoon. After putting it in her mouth, her eyes quickly widened as she realized what she had tasted.

"This…this is something else, Cheryl. Thank you."

"No problem. Just drink some water and you should start to feel better soon," Cheryl said politely, taking the bottle back and placing it in her bag. After half an hour, the group was packed up and ready to continue on their journey.

They walked through much of the day, as Cheryl had insisted, only stopping twice—once for lunch, and once when they passed by the only building in the Eterna Forest: an old, run down chateau building that was covered in vines and moss, with trees sprouting in and around it.

"This is an Old Chateau. It's known mostly as being abandoned by its owner several decades ago, as you can clearly see, and for rumors that ghosts inhabit the place now, some of which are to be humans who used to live there."

Niko felt a chill run down his spine. Suddenly, he felt his head ache slightly, but didn't make a big deal of it so as to not concern his friends. But he certainly felt some sort of sensation. Lauren, Brittany, and JJ also shivered slightly, with the former sneezing to break the prolonged silence after Cheryl's explanation.

"There's also an Old Chateau near Canalave City," Lauren noted. "I've never visited, but there are rumors about that building that are similar to the ones you're telling us about this one."

"Indeed. Maybe the same family owned both of them?" Cheryl suggested. "Anyways, I can tell I've frightened the lot of you. Let's keep moving on."

And move on they did. For the rest of the day, they walked until Eterna City was in sight. Lauren—who was clearly the most exhausted—ran down the road in pursuit of the city. Shaking his head, Niko quickly followed, with Brittany, JJ, and Cheryl trailing behind.


	11. The champion and the mysterious woman

**Episode 11: The champion and the mysterious woman**

"Starly, quick attack!"

"Growlithe, use flame wheel!" JJ commanded. The bird and puppy collided in the middle of the Pokémon Center's battlefield, leaving starly with a rather large burn on its left wing.

Niko had spent much of the morning training for his and Lauren's upcoming gym battle in Eterna City. After looking it up with JJ, he discovered that the gym leader—Gardenia—used grass types. With this knowledge, Niko began training his starly for the upcoming battle, knowing that he might have to rely on it. Fortunately for him, the starling pokémon was already strong relative to his other pokémon—the only challenge he faced was getting more comfortable commanding the bird, and vice versa with starly.

"Starly! Are you alright?" Niko cried out. The flying type turned back and nodded fiercely, forcing Niko to smile. "Okay, dive down and use wing attack!"

"Growlithe, repel starly with roar!" JJ commanded, thrusting his hand out in a gesture. The puppy pokémon opened its maw and belted out a powerful roar that pierced the ears of everyone nearby, causing starly to get distracted and fly off course, crashing into the ground nearby. "Now, finish starly off with flamethrower!"

"Starly, double team!" Niko shouted. The starling pokémon duplicated itself half a dozen times to distract growlithe, allowing it to escape. "Now, slam into it with wing attack!"

Starly charged forward, swiftly dodging growlithe's flame wheel before turning back around and slamming into the puppy pokémon from behind, knocking it to the ground.

"Great job! Now fly directly into the air and crash down with quick attack!" Niko commanded. Starly did as told, aiming for the sky before turning 180 degrees in the opposite direction and diving down at growlithe, who belted out a powerful flamethrower at starly. "Brave it, starly! You can do it!"

Starly couldn't do it. The flying type collided with the jet of fire and rolled to the left before falling back to the ground, crashing in the dirt. Niko ran over to the little bird and picked it up.

"You did amazing, starly. We didn't win, but you should still feel proud of yourself for giving it your all," Niko said. "Now let's go heal you up."

"Great match, Niko!" JJ said before crouching down and petting growlithe. Niko nodded, and then turned around and ran into the Pokémon Center.

Meanwhile, Lauren and Brittany were training for their next competitions—Lauren for her gym battle, and Brittany for her contest—while watching the boys battle. "JJ's growlithe is pretty strong, isn't it?" Lauren said with an impressed expression.

"Yeah, he's had it a long time now. You know he raised it from an egg, right?" Lauren nodded. "Growlithe loves JJ, more than anything I think. And that's why it tries so hard in its battles. Plus, it isn't in a lot of them to begin with, so I'm sure it loves to try when it can."

"Niko did well, too," Lauren added, this time with a look of admiration. "That starly is naturally strong. He'll do well against Gardenia."

"Look at you, complimenting Niko," Brittany said with a smirk while she watched spheal practice aurora beam.

"Oh please, I call it when I see it. Don't think much of it," Lauren said passively, but her facial expression hardly changed.

"Sure, whatever you say," Brittany replied before commanding spheal to combine ice ball and aurora beam, which misfired and nearly hit a tall blonde-haired woman walking on the other end of the battlefield. "Oh no! I'm so sorry!" She said, cupping her mouth with her hands before scolding spheal.

The blonde woman looked up in surprise, but chuckled a little, clearly passing it off. "No worries, it didn't hit me, and that's what matters. That's a strong looking spheal you got there. Where did you find it?"

Brittany blinked a few times, as if trying to register the question. "Err…Shoal Cave in Hoenn. Why?"

"No reason, just curious. I'm always fascinated by how, where, and why pokémon and their trainers meet. It sometimes says something about their relationship."

JJ nodded, looking down at growlithe. "That's very true, actually."

The woman turned to JJ. She was taller than him—roughly as tall as Niko—and had long, flowing blonde hair that went down behind her knees. She wore all black, with a teardrop crystal necklace. "I saw you battling your friend just now. That's a very strong growlithe you got there. You must be a proud trainer."

"That I am! I raised this growlithe from an egg a few years back and we're very close!" JJ said, looking at growlithe with pride.

"From an egg? Are you a pokémon breeder?"

Brittany and Lauren both looked with surprise at JJ and the blonde woman, who somehow guessed JJ's goal correctly. The curly blonde trainer nodded. "Indeed! I'm actually working on becoming one—I'm not one _yet_."

"I completely understand. Tell me, why do you want to be a breeder?" She said, walking over to a bench and sitting down. JJ followed her.

"I don't really know—I just always enjoyed raising pokémon. I'm not much of a battler or a coordinator—I've tried both—and I just love the idea of travelling and meeting new pokémon, seeing the different ways they're raised and trained. Being a breeder would give me the chance to continue doing that."

"I see. It's a noble profession, to be sure. But you're surely a good battler, if the past 10 minutes are an indication of anything. Oh!" She said with surprise. "My manners—I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Cynthia."

Lauren's jaw seemed to drop to the floor in surprise. "No. Way. _The_ Cynthia? Sinnoh Champion Cynthia?" Cynthia nodded. "Oh my god…it's an honor to be in your presence!"

"A fan, I see. Well, hello to you, too," She said with a smile. "Are you all travelling together?"

Lauren, JJ, and Brittany all responded with a positive "yes" just as Niko and starly walked back out of the Pokémon Center and joined them. Confused, he eyed Cynthia with bemusement before turning to Brittany.

"Niko, this is Cynthia, the Champion of the Sinnoh region."

"Really now? Pleased to meet you, Cynthia. I'm Niko."

Cynthia shook Niko's hand with a smile. "Pleasure is all mine. I saw your battle with this growlithe, and I was just mentioning how impressive of a battler it is. I could certainly say the same thing about your starly. You must've been with it for some time now."

"Heh, well it's funny you mention that. I just caught it in the Eterna Forest. This is the first time I've had the opportunity to train with it."

"Oh? Well then, that's intriguing, to be sure. I already asked JJ what he is working towards in life, so I'll ask you the same, out of pure curiosity: what's your goal?"

"I want to be a pokémon master," Niko answered simply.

A small smile crept up along Cynthia's face. "Ah, a noble goal. I once knew a trainer who wanted the very same thing. He surely accomplished it, but not without great difficulty. It isn't easy getting to be a strong pokémon trainer. You go through hard days, but they're coupled with days of victory. You'll see sacrifices made on behalf of furthering your goal, either from yourself or those close to you. Obstacles cloud your path. But once you attain total victory, well, it's certainly worth it, at least in the moment."

Niko looked at Cynthia with bemusement, lacking a coherent response to her explanation. Unable to muster up anything to say, he simply sat down on the bench in front of Lauren and Brittany.

"Sorry if I scared you. I don't mean that pessimistically. All goals in life are wrought with difficulty and sacrifice. Life is full of opportunity costs—what will you give up in order to attain something else? But being a pokémon master is that, but with more obstacles in your path. Either way, you should still aim to be the best at whatever you're interested in. That's what I did, and I became champion."

"You're right…sorry if I seemed a little confused at first."

Cynthia nodded and smiled sincerely. "So I assume you're here to challenge Gardenia?" Niko and Lauren both nodded. "Oh, both of you? Very good. I wish you only the best in your journey," She then sat in thought for a moment before looking back up at the four trainers. "Say, would you four be interested in seeing something, here in Eterna City?"

The four of them nodded, albeit cautiously. Cynthia then stood back up and led the group past the Pokémon Center and towards the northeastern end of town. There, on the top of a rather large hill, stood a statue of a four-legged beast with a long neck and fin-like structure on its back. There was a space under the statue where a plaque should have been.

"This is a statue of the legendary pokémon Dialga, the master of time. Alongside its partner—Palkia—it is central to the myths in the Sinnoh region."

Niko nodded, having read briefly about the time pokémon in his mythology book. Being able to see even a statue of the pokémon was powerful enough, and it made him think of what it might be like to have the power to travel through time.

Brittany and JJ both looked at each other. Having travelled through time once before, they immediately understood the power it held. They simply impacted a single moment of a single day. Both of them found it difficult to imagine changing anything more than that, much less having the power to do so at their will.

"I've read about Dialga in school before. My Dad also liked to read me the legends of them when I was a kid and lived in Johto," Lauren commented.

Cynthia was about to reply when they all noticed a tall woman eying the Dialga statue from the other side. She had short silver hair and wore a long dark blue coat. Her left hand seemed to be replaced with a metallic-looking glove, while the other was stuffed away in her right pocket. She wore large sunglasses over her eyes.

"The ability to alter time and render space. Can you imagine?" She said in a plan tone, looking over at the group and Cynthia. "Can you imagine…the power you'd have?"

"You'd essentially be a god," JJ replied, still in awe.

"Indeed. But you wouldn't be. You aren't Arceus—the creator of Dialga and Palkia—though. But all the same, you could control the universe, just in the palm of your hand," She said as a pokéball fell out from under her sleeve and into her right palm, landing on a black fingerless glove.

She stood there for a moment, eying the group. Due to her sunglasses, it was difficult for any of them to read her expression.

"You kids might have been too young, but once upon a time a man tried to control them. He lost his life in that attempt. Unfortunate, too, he was a strong-willed man. We sadly are in short supply of them."

Cynthia's brows furrowed. "Cyrus was a madman! He had no idea what he was attempting to control."

"Oh, I think he did. And he nearly succeeded, if it weren't for that group of pestilent children. They had no idea what they were dealing with," She looked off to the west, towards a run-down building in the northwestern part of town that looked abandoned for some time. "I shouldn't keep you, champion, you've got company," She then turned to the four of them and nodded. "Farewell."

"Who was that?" JJ asked, looking to Cynthia for answers.

"I have an idea, but I'll keep that to myself for now. Anyways, I actually have something for you four that I think might help at least one of you on your journey. Follow me."

Cynthia led the group down a block to a small cottage near a park. Leading them inside, they noticed a quaint little living space next to a kitchen and a door that led to a bedroom. Cynthia motioned them to sit down while she went into the bedroom and returned a minute later with a white egg that had red and blue-speckles all over it.

"I recently received this egg from a friend. However, due to my rather busy schedule—and that I'll be out of Sinnoh for the next few weeks, during which time this egg is expected to hatch—I needed to find a trainer to give it to. JJ, since you've expressed interest in becoming a breeder, would you like it?"

JJ turned to Niko, Brittany, and Lauren before nodding to Cynthia. "It would be an honor, Cynthia. Truly."

The champion smiled as she handed JJ the egg. "I trust that you will take good care of it. If your growlithe is a testament of anything, it's this."

JJ smiled, unsure of how exactly to respond. "I have no words, Cynthia. This is incredible. Thank you so much."

"It's my pleasure. Now, I'm sure you four must be off. You've got a gym battle ahead of you!"

Niko and Lauren looked at each other before addressing Cynthia. "I think we're actually going to challenge Gardenia tomorrow, since both of us still need to get some training in."

"That's fair indeed. She's quite the opponent. Grass types can be finnicky, for sure. Regardless, best of luck in this battle and in your future endeavors. I do hope our paths cross again."

Niko nodded, and waved along with his friends as they exited Cynthia's cottage and back to the Pokémon Center, where he and Lauren would continue training for their next gym battle.


	12. A vivid battle in the garden!

**Episode 12: A vivid battle in the garden!**

Niko and Lauren spent a considerable amount of time after their meeting with Cynthia training for their upcoming gym battle in Eterna City. For the most part, they trained independent of one another, due to their distaste for the other's training style. Niko continued training starly, but didn't neglect his other three, either. Turtwig, shinx, and piplup all continued practicing their moves as well, as well as running laps around the Pokémon Center's practice battlefield. After now weeks of doing this, Niko noticed a noticeable difference in turtwig's and shinx's speed. And while starly was already fast in its own right, it did have difficulty with using that speed to its advantage, particularly with regards to its accuracy. Piplup, lastly, was getting faster, but was more focused on hitting its target rather than its agility.

Lauren, as usual, was laxer in her "hard" training, and focused on trying to potentially combine moves together. Roselia was the easiest to do this with. One combination she created was to combine stun spore and bullet seed to increase the length of the paralysis of her opponent, or to combine bullet seed with mega drain to create a "leech seed," but with more power. Haunter, powerful enough already, worked primarily on its moves as usual, without any real goal behind them. The only major difference in Lauren's training regimen this time was chimchar. She wanted to work more with it, regardless of Niko's constant complaints. She tried to help it learn a combination of ember and fury swipes—"fire swipes" as she called it—but it wasn't working exactly the way she had hoped. With the knowledge that the Eterna Gym was grass type, however, Lauren wanted to work with chimchar more than usual.

Brittany and JJ simply worked on the coordinator's style performances in preparation for her next contest—at some location they were not yet aware of. Spheal seemed to get better at aiming its aurora beam, but would still occasionally hit another pokémon on the field on accident. Tangela was perfecting its stun spore and trying to further combine it with other moves to create a performance for the next contest. Wartortle, pikachu, and combusken were largely practicing their own moves, with the former trying to learn water pulse.

The following morning, the group got up and ate breakfast as usual in the Pokémon Center before heading towards the gym which, according to JJ's Pokétch, was at the southern end of the town.

The Eterna Gym was a round building covered in vines and other foliage with a large pokéball symbol above the front entrance. Walking inside, the four trainers saw a large greenhouse-esque battlefield that reminded Niko of the Celadon City gym back in Kanto. Near the entrance sat an orange and black-haired woman tending to a small garden. Upon hearing the footsteps of four apparent strangers, she paused and looked up, rather surprised to see so many people.

"Oh! Why hello!" She said in a friendly tone. "Name's Gardenia. And yourselves?"

"I'm Lauren, and this is Brittany, JJ, and Niko," The blue-haired trainer said, shaking Gardenia's rather dirty orange glove.

"Ah, my bad. I've been gardening. Anyways, what can I do for you?"

"Niko and I would like to each request a battle with you for your gym badge."

Gardenia's face lit up in surprise. "Of course you can! It's been weeks since I've had a gym battle. My pokémon are getting rusty for sure. Yes yes, I will battle each of you in turn. Now, who would like to go first?" She said as she ripped off her gloves and whistled, summoning three pokémon from around the gym to her. One of them was a turtwig, another one that looked like roselia, but far larger, and a petal-shaped pokémon enclosed in two large, purple petals.

Lauren and Niko looked at each other, unsure of who wanted to go first.

"Err, you should. Ladies first," Niko said, motioning Lauren forward. "Plus, you'd warm her up for me."

"Oh, shut up. I'll go first," Lauren snapped at Niko, "You'll need it anyways."

Brittany and JJ rolled their eyes as they joined Niko over in the stands, which turned out to just be a set of benches. Gardenia, for her part, walked to the other end of the field, her pokémon having been returned to their pokéballs.

"This will be a three-on-three pokémon battle. Does that work with you?" Lauren nodded, pulling out a pokéball for herself. "Excellent. Turtwig, I choose you!"

"Haunter, you're up!" Lauren shouted. "Night shade!"

"Turtwig, reflect!" Gardenia commanded. The tiny leaf pokémon erected a glassy purple barrier in front of itself to repel the spectral shade that Haunter conjured, knocking it backwards. Lauren followed up with a series of shadow punches, none of which seemed to be doing much damage, but it was clear that the turtwig was exhausted from holding the barrier up.

"Haunter, use hypnosis!" Lauren cried out. The gas pokémon's eyes began to glow a bright red color, with rings emitting from its eyes and enlarging themselves until they got to turtwig, at which point the grass type found it difficult to stay awake. It collapsed onto the ground, fast asleep. "Now, follow up with night shade!" Haunter executed the attack. "Now, shadow punch! Again! Again!"

The ghost type launched spectral move after spectral move, all of which successfully hit the turtwig until it fainted.

"Yes! Great job, haunter!" Lauren shouted with pleasure.

"Geez, that haunter is something else…" JJ commented from the benches. Niko nodded, wondering if he could ever beat a pokémon like that with his current team.

"Turtwig is unable to battle!" Gardenia's judge—whom she summoned with the same finger-whistle she used to bring her pokémon over—declared. The gym leader returned her pokémon, but so did Lauren.

"Cherrim, I choose you!" Gardenia commanded, summoning the purple petal-like pokémon. Curious, Niko pulled out his pokédex to examine it:

" _Cherrim, the blossom pokémon. Grass type. If it sense strong sunlight, its bud blooms, its petals open fully, and it becomes very active_."

"Chimchar, you're up!" Lauren commanded. "Use ember!"

"Cherrim, use sunny day!" Gardenia commanded. "And yes, Lauren, I'm well aware of the effects it will have one chimchar."

As the sun from the skylight brightened, so did cherrim. Its petals opened up to reveal pink petals underneath, similar to cherry blossoms, that surround its head and chest. Two berry-like orbs adorned its head.

"Cherrim, solarbeam!" Gardenia commanded. While chimchar's ember scorched the field around it, cherrim prepared a glowing green orb above its body that it then directed at the chimp pokémon. It launched the beam, which nearly hit chimchar, and certainly would have had it not barely edged out of the way.

"Guess we need to be more careful, buddy," Lauren noted. "Chimchar, use fire swipes!" The chimp rushed forward across the grassy battlefield, its hands trying to catch on fire. However, as it rushed at cherrim, the fire swipes ended up being ordinary fury swipes, which cherrim quickly retaliated against using magical leaf. Chimchar flew backwards from the force of the purple floating leaves.

"Cherrim, use leech seed!" Gardenia commanded. The blossom pokémon released a small seed from its mouth and shot it at chimchar, covering it in vines. The vines then began to glow a light red, sapping the chimp's strength. "Now, solarbeam!"

"Chimchar, fight through the pain, you can do it!" Lauren shouted. Chimchar tried to escape the vines, but it couldn't, and was hit with the solarbeam head on, knocking it backwards and into the grass, the vines once more sapping its strength. Lauren then came up with an idea. "Chimchar! Use ember on yourself!"

The fire type leaned its head up and forward and tried to attack itself, but the leech seed made it too weak to do so and, compounded with the solarbeam and magical leaf, it was far too exhausted. It lay its head back down and, upon getting hit with another magical leaf, fainted.

"Chimchar is unable to battle, cherrim wins! Lauren will send out her next pokémon!" The judge declared.

Lauren frowned as she returned chimchar to its pokéball. The chimp had the greatest advantage against the gym leader, but now it was gone. _Guess I'll have to rely on haunter and roselia to win this one…_ She thought. "Roselia, I choose you!"

"Ah, a roselia? Cool choice," Gardenia said, complimenting Lauren's pick. "Let's see how well you fare. Cherrim, use magical leaf!"

"Roselia, water sport!" She shouted. The thorn pokémon raised both of its rose-hands to the sky and sprayed water like it was a sprinkler, dampening the battlefield. "Now, fire off bullet seed-stun spore!" She commanded, testing out one of her new combinations.

The poison type first evaded the magical leaf—or at least attempted to, as the attack hit just as it launched its own move—and fired off a round of glowing green seeds coated in yellow spores from its red rose before getting hit by the purple magical leaf. The attack successfully hit cherrim, paralyzing it for some time.

"Now roselia, bullet seed and mega drain!" Lauren commanded. Out of roselia's blue rose, the thorn pokémon launched another round of glowing seeds, this time covered in the same material as leech seed. They hit cherrim, and upon contact vines began to grow around the blossom pokémon, covering it in leech seed-like material, sapping the pokémon of its energy. Cherrim collapsed onto the grass as roselia continued to drain its energy with mega drain and pelt it with bullet seeds, ultimately leading to its defeat.

"Cherrim is unable to battle, roselia wins!" The judge declared.

"Cherrim, return," Gardenia said. "Roserade, you're up!" She shouted, summoning the pokémon that looked similar to roselia, only far larger. I bore a leaf-like cape that fell to its feet; the rose on its arms were instead in a bouquet fashion, and it had a masquerade mask across its face and white petals formed in the shape of hair. Niko pulled out his pokédex to examine it:

" _Roserade, the bouquet pokémon. Grass and poison type. Each of its hands contains different toxins, but both hands can jab with near-fatal power._ "

"Roserade, use magical leaf!" Gardenia commanded. The bouquet pokémon spun around, releasing a flurry of sharp purple leaves at roselia, who attempted to block them with bullet seed but failed and got pelted with the attack. "Now, use stun spore!"

Roserade then lifted both of its bouquets into the air. They began to glow a dull yellow color, and then roserade lowered them back to face roselia—reeling from the previous attack—and released the yellow spores directly at the thorn pokémon, who blocked the attack using water sport.

"Roselia, use bullet seed and stun spore!" Lauren commanded. Out of the thorn pokémon's red rose came a series of yellow and green seeds that nearly hit roserade, who swiftly evaded and rushed forward. Roserade quickly closed the gap on roselia and leapt forward, its bouquets glowing dull yellow once more before it unleashed a second stun spore from up close, paralyzing roselia before landing behind it.

"Roserade, use giga drain!" Gardenia commanded. Roserade spun back towards its opponent and pressed its bouquets on the stunned roselia, aggressively sapping its energy before letting go, allowing roselia to shake briefly from the shock of the attack before fainting.

"Roselia is unable to battle, roserade wins! Lauren will now send out her final pokémon!"

"Haunter, let's finish this!" Lauren commanded. "Use shadow punch!"

"Roserade, block it with stun spore!" Gardenia commanded. The spectral punches faded as they collided with a cloud of yellow dust emitting from the blue and red bouquets on roserade's hands. "Now, follow up with magical leaf!"

"Block it with night shade!" Lauren shouted. Haunter shifted around a little, conjuring a shade of itself to launch at its opponent, effectively blocking the swarm of razor-sharp purple leaves. "Now, rush in and use shadow punch!"

"Stun spore once it lets close enough!" Gardenia commanded.

Lauren smirked, peering at Niko through her peripheral vision. "Haunter, switch to hypnosis!"

The gas pokémon nodded, stopping midway across the field and blinking its now-glowing red eyes, which emitted large rings that surrounded roserade, quickly putting it to sleep as it was about to release stun spore.

"Haunter, use shadow punch!" Lauren commanded, thrusting a fist forward. The gas pokémon shot roserade with a series of spectral punches that quickly seemed to subdue the bouquet pokémon, who lay asleep the whole time.

"Roserade is unable to battle, haunter wins! The victory goes to Lauren!" The judge declared.

"Yippee! We did it, haunter!" Lauren shouted excitedly, turning to her friends who cheered back. Niko smiled and clapped before getting up and switching places with her. "See, warmed her up for you," She said with a wink.

"Bah, whatever. Good job, though," Niko said as he approached his end of the battlefield. Lauren nodded appreciatively before sitting down next to Brittany and JJ, her haunter floating above and to her left. Gardenia took a few moments to go and quickly heal up her pokémon before returning, giving Niko some time to consider his strategy, given how he saw the gym leader battle with Lauren. In seemingly no time at all, Gardenia returned, and the battle began shortly after.

"Cherrim, you're up!" She shouted.

"Shinx, let's go!" Niko commanded. "Use charge and tackle!"

"Cherrim, sunny day!" Gardenia commanded. The blossom pokémon opened up as shinx charged forward and slammed into it, knocking the grass type over. "Now, use solarbeam!"

"Shinx, dodge it and use bite!" Niko commanded. Just as cherrim launched the solarbeam upwards, nearly breaking the skylight above and barely missing the flash pokémon, who lurched back at its opponent and bit down on one of its pink petals, causing cherrim to yelp out in pain. "Now, use spark!"

"Cherrim, magical leaf!" Gardenia commanded. This time the attack hit. Shinx was repelled across the grassy battlefield by sharp purple leaves. After rolling through the still-damp grass, Niko came up with an idea.

"Shinx, use spark on the grass!" Niko commanded. Shinx nodded, releasing unfocused electricity into the grass below it. The spark reacted to the damp grass which caused a series of small explosions across the battlefield, hitting cherrim from all directions. "Now, use charge and tackle once more!"

The flash pokémon rushed forward once more at cherrim, the electricity coursing through its body before it tackled the blossom pokémon with incredible force, knocking it back over before it could launch another solarbeam.

"Now, finish it off with bite!" Niko commanded. Shinx bit down once more on cherrim's pink leaves, picked it up, and tossed it across the charred battlefield where it collapsed onto the ground. However, it was not yet defeated. Cherrim got back up and unleashed a solarbeam that hit shinx directly in the face, knocking it across the battlefield near Gardenia, where it fainted.

"Shinx is unable to battle, cherrim wins! Niko will send out his second pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Return shinx, you did a great job. Now, piplup, I choose you!"

"Piplup? Odd choice, but alright. Cherrim, this should be easy, use solarbeam!"

As Gardenia shouted the command, the sun's rays dimmed slightly, forcing cherrim to take more time to charge up its attack as well as clam up behind its purple petals. Niko and piplup took advantage of this.

"Piplup, use peck!" Niko shouted. The penguin pokémon—fired up by the chance to battle once again—rushed forward at cherrim and managed to land a peck on the top of its head before swiftly evading the solarbeam aimed directly at it. "Use peck again! You can do this, piplup!"

The penguin pokémon continued to assault cherrim with pecks, hitting both of its purple petals before launching a final peck right in between the two, which sent cherrim flying backwards.

"Cherrim is unable to battle, piplup wins! Leader Gardenia will now send out her second pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Turtwig, you're up!" Gardenia commanded. "Use razor leaf!"

"Piplup, repel it with bubble!" Niko commanded. The water type launched a series of bubbles at turtwig in an effort to minimize the damage it took, but the strategy hardly worked—piplup got pounded by a series of sharp green leaves that left it laying on its back in the charred grass.

"Turtwig, use grass knot!" Gardenia shouted! Suddenly a vine crept out from the battlefield and wrapped itself around piplup's left foot, preventing it from moving, and yanked the pokémon forward towards turtwig. "Now, razor leaf!"

"Piplup, protect yourself with bubble!" Niko commanded in an attempt to continue with his previous strategy. It hardly seemed to work, but it kept piplup from fainting. Turtwig released its opponent from the grass knot and attempted to use razor leaf a third time—in hopes of finishing it off—but piplup lurched forward and pecked at the tiny leaf pokémon several times.

"Turtwig, grass knot!" Gardenia commanded.

"Piplup, jump up and land with another peck!" Niko shouted. Piplup managed to evade the vines creeping out from the ground before dipping its head back down and slamming its beak onto the top of turtwig's head, knocking it to the ground.

Both pokémon, now exhausted, looked at each other, knowing that the battle between them would soon end. Simultaneously, Niko and Gardenia commanded their pokémon to use peck and razor leaf, respectively. Piplup managed to get in one final move before falling to a third razor leaf.

"Piplup is unable to battle, turtwig wins! Niko will now send out his third and final pokémon!"

"Starly, you're up!" Niko commanded.

"He's sending in his newest pokémon?" JJ asked with surprise. "It has the advantage, sure, but Niko still has to deal with that roserade as well."

"Niko will do it," Brittany stated. "He usually does," Noticeably, Lauren nodded in agreement.

"Starly, use wing attack!" Niko commanded. The starling pokémon rushed forward at turtwig, who used razor leaf to try and slow starly down, but the tiny bird weaved in and out of the leaves, evading all of them. It then struck turtwig with glowing white wings, knocking it backwards before swooping back into the air. "Now, use quick attack!"

At an even faster speed, starly spun through the air and dove back downwards, slamming into turtwig as it was trying to get back up.

"Turtwig is unable to battle, starly wins!" The judge declared.

"Return, turtwig," Gardenia said, "Now, roserade, I choose you!"

"Starly, we can do this. Just be swift with your attacks, and we shouldn't have any problems, alright?" Niko said. Starly turned to its trainer and nodded, feeling fired up from its swift victory over turtwig. "Alright, then! Use quick attack!"

"Roserade, stun spore!" Gardenia commanded. The attack seemed to fail, however, as starly moved in and attacked too quickly for roserade's stun spore to have any effect. "Use magical leaf!" Roserade spun around and shot a series of sharp purple leaves at starly while it was flying back into the air towards Niko. The attack hit, knocking the flying type to the ground. "Now, use stun spore!"

Roserade's red and blue bouquets glowed a dull yellow color as they emitted the spores, which glossed over the charred grass until it contacted starly, paralyzing it.

"Starly! You have to fight through it!" Niko shouted, now afraid that he might lose the match due to starly not being trained enough. Roserade quickly closed the gap between it and its opponent and, once it was close enough, lifted up its blue bouquet to land a successful giga drain on starly.

The attack succeeded, however it didn't defeat the starling pokémon. Still stunned, starly made several attempts to move, at least until Niko got an idea.

"Starly, use double team!" Niko commanded. The starling pokémon responded by trying to duplicate itself, but failing. However, as roserade was about to lower its blue bouquet once more to use giga drain, Niko shouted the command once more. "Starly! Double team!"

Starly responded successfully this time, duplicating its body twice, and replacing itself with one of the duplicates, who got hit with the giga drain instead. The stun spore then began to wear off, allowing starly to slow move out of the way as an enraged roserade began slamming its bouquets into the ground in attempts to use giga drain. Once the stun spore fully wore off, starly took to the skies once more, nearly dodging a magical leaf. Starly collapsed back onto the ground.

"Roserade, finish it off with giga drain!" Gardenia commanded. As roserade was about to slam its bouquet onto starly to finish it off, the bird pokémon began to glow bright white, forcing roserade to cover its eyes.

The starling pokémon grew twice its size. Its wings grew, its tail puffed out a little, and its talons extended downwards to reveal short orange legs. Its beak and head protruded further out of its body, and a small tuft of feathers curled up atop its head. Niko pulled out his pokédex:

" _Staravia, the starling pokémon. Normal and flying type. Recognizing their own weakness, they always live in a group. When alone, a staravia cries noisily_."

"Heh, alright then. Staravia, let's do this. Use quick attack on roserade!" Niko commanded. The starling pokémon rose off of the ground, opened its wings wide, and rushed at an unsuspecting bouquet pokémon, crashing into it and dragging it alone the blackened battlefield. "Now, combine it with wing attack!" Niko commanded, thrusting his palm forwards. Staravia's wings began to glow a bright white, and it increased the speed of its attack, launching roserade across the battlefield towards its trainer while it rose back into the air, ready to attack once more.

Gardenia grit her teeth. "Roserade, use magical leaf!"

"Staravia, dive back down and use wing attack!" Niko commanded. The starling pokémon nodded, shooting like a bullet back towards its opponent, braving the magical leaf as it collided once more with its opponent. "Now, finish it off with quick attack!"

"Stun spore!" Gardenia commanded. Roserade's bouquets began to glow again as staravia rushed towards it with blinding speed. However, this time the attack successfully hit staravia. On the other hand, staravia hit roserade as well, causing both to collapse onto the ground.

After a few moments it was clear roserade wasn't able to get up, and so the judge called the match in Niko's favor.

"Roserade is unable to battle, staravia wins. The victory goes to Niko!" He declared.

Niko rushed across the field while Gardenia returned roserade. He picked up the paralyzed staravia and told it the good news. "You did it, buddy. Welcome to the team," He said with a sincere smile. Staravia tried to pull together a smile in response, but was still unable to move. Niko returned the starling pokémon to allow it to rest. By this time, his friends had also joined him, waiting for Gardenia to present him and Lauren with the badge they both earned.

With a smile, Gardenia pulled out two green and silver badges in the shape of treetops in a forest. "Lauren, Niko, here I present to you the forest badge, as proof that you both beat me. Congrats, you've certainly earned them."

Lauren and Niko took the badges from Gardenia's palm, looked at each other, and smiled. It was a rare occasion that they both smiled sincerely at one another, as if acknowledging that the other was a trainer worthy to rival them. They both thanked Gardenia for the battle and, alongside Brittany and JJ, exited the gym and walked back to the Pokémon Center.

"So, where to next?" Niko asked as he sat next to JJ in a booth in the center while their pokémon healed.

JJ looked at his Pokétch for a moment before answering. He then pulled out the map Lucas gave them and studied it for a moment. "Hearthome City, by the looks of it. About a week away."

"Oh! There's contests being held there all the time!" Lauren shouted excitedly. "Brittany, want to enter them?"

The brunette raised an eyebrow, as if Lauren was stating the obvious. "Of course! Why not?" The two high-fived before turning back to Niko and JJ.

"So, Hearthome City it is."

* * *

 **Author's Note: Yeah, haunter is pretty OP in this battle, I know. It's only natural that it would be relative to the others, considering how long Lauren's had it compared to roselia or chimchar. But I plan to tone it down a little bit in later battles-it can't stay OP forever, right?**


	13. On the wayward path

**Episode 13: On the wayward path**

As they were exiting Eterna City hours after Niko and Lauren's victory against Gardenia, the group continued on their journey towards their next destination—Hearthome City. There, Brittany, Lauren, and Niko would compete in either contests or a gym battle or, in Lauren's case, both. As such, they spent much of their time travelling south on route 206 training.

That evening, after walking for a few hours, the group took a break under the cycling road that ran across route 206. Not having any bikes of their own, and Niko himself not knowing how to ride one, the four of them elected to take the longer route underneath the cycling road that stood several dozens of feet above them.

Before dinner, Lauren summoned her chimchar and began training, which of course elicited a remark from Niko. "Oh, so now you're training her?" Niko said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, of course I am. And yes, you were right—I should have tried harder with chimchar," Lauren said, turning away as if ashamed. Niko cocked his head for a moment.

 _She's probably mad at me, isn't she?_ He thought, suddenly feeling a bit of remorse. He pulled out his own pokéball, containing turtwig, and summoned the tiny leaf pokémon. "Alright turtwig, let's practice a new move—razor leaf," Niko then tried showing turtwig how he might use razor leaf, which involved spinning his head around. This seemed to entertain the others, who hooted and howled at Niko's "razor leaf impression."

Meanwhile, Lauren was busy trying to get chimchar to perfect its fire swipes combination, which relied on both ember and fury swipes. The problem here was chimchar couldn't activate the fire from anywhere other than her mouth. They tried to have chimchar use ember on its hands, but once the chimp pokémon started to run forward, the flames dissipated. Frustrated, Lauren walked back over to their small camp and leaned against a tree.

After finishing her training with wartortle and spheal, Brittany joined Lauren at the base of the tree. Leaning over, she locked eyes with Lauren's. "You alright?" She asked in a low voice. Lauren simply nodded in response.

Minutes later, she finally spoke. "I'm just…mad. Mad and confused."

"Mad about what, confused about what?" Brittany asked with a sympathetic look.

"Mad at Niko, confused about why chimchar's attacks aren't working."

"Well," Brittany began, shifting her body into a slightly more comfortable spot, where her knees were bent and held together by her hands. "Niko can be a pain in the ass sometimes. He wasn't always like this, I'll have you know. As for chimchar, I can't really tell you."

"What's he normally like? Niko, I mean."

"He's actually really nice. Just has a history of low self-esteem. But I don't get much into that. He stepped up a lot when we were in Hoenn, helping us chase after two evil teams and making sure we were going in the right direction. Although…I think that was partly the absence of Fay, who was sort of a 'leader' in our group, and partly Niko's brother travelling with us. I would like to believe that he felt he needed to step up for his brother's sake."

"I see. I don't know why he's such a jerk to me, though."

"Maybe you two just got off to the wrong start. That happens sometimes," Brittany laughed a little at some thought, and then elaborated on it. "There's this one kid, Elliot, that Niko and Fay had a rivalry with. All throughout Kanto and Johto, Niko was never able to beat him. Ever. It's because of Elliot that Niko only placed in the Top 8 in Johto. Otherwise, he could have gone further."

"Really? His pokémon are that strong?"

"Well, yeah. He's stronger than JJ and I for sure. I don't think he can win a Pokémon League just yet, but he's getting there. But like all trainers, his flaws are holding him back."

"The self-esteem?"

Brittany nodded. "Yeah. He doesn't show it as much these days, but it's still there. I guess to answer your question, Niko just doesn't agree with you on certain things, and that makes him dislike you a bit. Not exactly the best trait in the world, but we all have our flaws. Also, I think he finds it entertaining to tease you."

They both laughed a little at this, now watching JJ and Niko battle. The curly blonde trainer was using his marill, while Niko chose to use turtwig, as he was training the tiny leaf pokémon to use razor leaf. Marill dodged and weaved through the sharp leaves, showing that it was far more agile than either Niko or JJ had originally anticipated. Marill then spun around and whipped its tail at turtwig with an unusual amount of force, knocking the grass type backwards a bit.

"Marill, where did you get all of this energy?" JJ asked, looking down at the aquamouse pokémon, who simply turned around and smiled eagerly. "Maybe I should be using you in more battles, then. Also, Niko, great job! Turtwig seems to be learning razor leaf pretty fast."

Niko helped turtwig off of the ground before responding. "Yeah, I think so. He's pretty smart, but we'll see," Niko said, patting turtwig on the head before looking back at the girls. "What are you two up to?"

"Gossiping, what else!?" Lauren said sarcastically. Niko simply nodded with a confused expression before walking over to his end of their camp and sat down next to shinx, piplup, and staravia, all of whom were sleeping after a long day. Niko was proud of their performance at the Eterna Gym, staravia in particular. As he thought about how to improve their chances at winning at the Hearthome Gym, he began to come up with some potential new moves, and suddenly felt a rush of excitement at getting the opportunity to use them in battle.

* * *

The following day, the group was travelling south along route 206 when they noticed a cloud of fog growing in front of them. They all stopped in their tracks, unsure of what to do.

"Niko...?" Brittany asked, looking to her friend. "What do you think we should do?"

"I guess we just walk through it. Maybe I can ask staravia to flap his wings. That'll hopefully get rid of it, right?"

His friends nodded in agreement, and he soon summoned the starling pokémon and commanded him to get rid of the fog. When it didn't seem to do much, Niko simply began walking through it with staravia. Soon after, the other three followed. Niko maintained slow steps, as he was barely able to see the ground under him. However, he made one misstep and suddenly the ground disappeared from underneath him. He grabbed onto staravia's talon, but the bird wasn't able to hold his weight, and the two crashed down onto the ground moments later, clearly far lower than the others.

It didn't take long before Niko heard another voice getting louder as Lauren hit the ground just behind him. Soon after, JJ and Brittany both hit the ground as well.

"Are you three alright?" Niko asked as he helped his friends up. All three of them were covered in bruises, and it looked like JJ may have cracked something. Luckily, the egg he was holding was safe.

"Think so…ow…" JJ said, trying to stand back up. "I may have broken or sprained my ankle…not really sure."

"Where are we?" Lauren asked, looking around. "We fell, but was it just an uncovered hole?"

"Must've been, otherwise there'd be like leaves or branches around us from the fall. Doesn't look like it," Niko replied, looking around. In all directions there were half a dozen tunnels leading away. Looking back up he tried to figure out the best way through. Pointing in what he thought was the "forward" direction, he began walking with staravia.

"Where are _you_ going?" Lauren demanded. "Shouldn't we be finding a way out of here?"

"I am," Niko said plainly, turning back and looking at Lauren. "You coming?"

"Uh, err, sure then. Let's go, Brittany, JJ,"

"Guys, I think we should wait here. JJ's ankle needs attention. He can't walk on it. How about this…you two go on and find a way out of here that doesn't involve getting out of this hole. Staravia can search above on land for someone who might have a rope."

"Wait…then why would we go into the tunnel?" Lauren asked.

"Maybe there's a cave entrance that leads to the surface, I don't know. But we shouldn't all be just sitting around."

"Says you. This doesn't make sense, but let's do it, Niko," She said, turning around and walking in the direction Niko was about to head in. The tall, brown-haired trainer followed behind.

Once they were out of hearing range of Brittany and JJ, Niko began to speak again. "Do you think we should split up? You know, cover more ground?"

"What if we got lost? Unless you want to split up, of course."

"Well, if you don't want to, that's fine. I get it if you're scared of the dark and need some company."

"I'm NOT scared of the dark! Fine, _I'll_ leave, then!" Lauren then stomped off at a faster pace but Niko, who had longer strides, kept up with her. "What? Sounds like you want the company, not me."

"Not true at all."

The two went silent for a while, walking through the dark tunnel with no light. It then occurred to Niko that he could use shinx, and after proposing the idea to Lauren, summoned the flash pokémon to help out. And he did—significantly. The tunnel was much lighter, and it allowed Niko and Lauren to see more of it.

It looked like any ordinary tunnel, but there were signs of zubats and golbats hanging from the ceiling, clearly not disturbed by the light emanating from shinx. The tunnel was also relatively clean-cut, as if it was man-made. Either way, Niko and Lauren continued down the path for some time, eventually reaching a dead end.

At the end of the tunnel, Lauren collapsed against the wall, dragging herself down to the ground and sitting there, clearly exhausted. After standing for a minute or so, Niko also sat down next to her, sighing heavily.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"Oh, nothing. Just catching up on breathing. Sometimes I forget to do that, I guess."

Lauren laughed. "It's kinda important, you know," Niko laughed in turn, but didn't verbally respond. After a couple more minutes, Lauren spoke again. "Brittany said you're a nice person."

Niko turned and looked at Lauren, confused as to why she would bring that up. "Oh…okay?"

"Sorry, that sounded awkward. What I mean is…so I was mad at you earlier, as I usually am, and I sat down with her and asked her if you're always like that, and she said that you weren't," Lauren then talked briefly about her conversation with Brittany, with Niko staying silent throughout. "So, yeah…I'm just bothered, by a lot of things, and admittedly some of those include you."

Niko looked ahead at the tunnel they had just travelled, thinking about a response. Before Lauren was about to speak again, he started talking. "You're right—I was kind of a jerk to you. And I have been a lot. I guess she's right in that I don't usually like to disagree with others, and so when I do I kind of shut them out of my life, or act like an ass to them. So, I apologize about that.

"But I also wanted to point out that you need to train your chimchar. Maybe I'm coming off as vain or conceited or whatever, but I was trying to help you. It just came off the wrong way. Like, chimchar shouldn't have lost to Gardenia's pokémon. If you had trained it before, then it would've done better."

"Yeah, but you were still mean about it. There are other ways you could have gone about communicating that to me."

Niko nodded. "And I regret that, so if it matters at all, I'm sorry. I'll try to be more careful with my tone in the future," He looked at her and when they locked eyes he half-smiled. "If it helps, I know from experience that training a fire type is not easy. At least, it wasn't for me."

"How so?" Lauren looked genuinely interested now.

"Well, you see Brittany, JJ, and our friend Fay all trained fire types, all with relative ease. And I'd never caught one before. But when we were in Hoenn, I came across this pokémon named numel. Strong pokémon, but I accidentally pissed it off a wild one and it chased after me, and would've caught up to me if I didn't catch it first. But once I caught it, it wouldn't listen. It never wanted to train, nothing. Nothing at all.

"Eventually, it lost in a battle that it should have won, and that's when I lost it. Later that day, I yelled at it, basically telling it that it could either leave and be away from me, or it could stay and get stronger. It chose to stay, and it got stronger. But it also never trainer, that just wasn't its style.

"The point I'm trying to make is that I see how difficult training your chimchar is, and I can understand not wanting to go through the difficulties of making it stronger. Your chimchar and my numel are by no means the same pokémon, but we both had—and have—difficulties with them, and it'll take some time—and a little pushing—to get to our destinations. I believe that if you make the conditions clear with chimchar—that if you want to get stronger alongside it, then you'll both see improvements sooner than you think. And if you keep working with it, it will get stronger, and things will come more naturally to it, and your bond with it will grow that much more."

Lauren looked down at the ground for a moment, trying to process all that Niko had said. Eventually she nodded. "You're right. Thanks, Niko, that helped."

"You're welcome. And thanks for telling me how much of a jerk I am to you. It sounds funny—and it kinda is—but you're completely correct. I need to treat you better, too."

Once more, they locked eyes and smiled before getting back up.

"Well, maybe we should just head back. Whaddya say?"

Lauren looked up at him and nodded eagerly. "Yeah! Maybe staravia found someone already!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Brittany was tending to JJ's ankle with the assistance of their pokémon. Spheal created an icepack of sorts in hopes that it might help; growlithe, wartortle, combusken, and marill heated up some water that Brittany soaked a cloth in, again in hopes that it might soften the pain JJ was feeling. The egg was resting up against the wall nearby, against JJ's backpack.

"Owowowow…." JJ said, cringing as he watched Brittany examine his ankle. "Do you know what you're doing?"

Brittany shook her head. "No idea."

They sat there for a moment until Brittany poked at a broken piece of the ankle, eliciting a blood-curdling scream from JJ. And as it turned out, his pokémon and Brittany weren't the only ones bothered by the scream. Moments later, a swarm of zubats and golbats shot through the tunnels from every direction and crowded the clearing in between, flying above the two trainers and their pokémon.

Now in battle mode, Brittany commanded her combusken, wartortle, and spheal to attack with flamethrower, water gun, and aurora beam, respectively. Weakly, JJ asked growlithe to use flamethrower and marill to use bubble. At this point, the bat pokémon descended towards them, attacking each of the five pokémon. The battle raged on for some time before one of them flew directly at JJ. Before any of the others noticed it, marill jumped in front of her trainer and took the hit, colliding with JJ's chest.

"Marill, are you okay?" JJ asked. The aquamouse nodded fiercely, standing back up on JJ's stomach and releasing a stream of bubbles at the attacker. The zubat cowered a little, but then launched a flurry of poison stings at marill and JJ.

Once more, the aquamouse took the attack, but she persisted, launching another bubblebeam before beginning to glow a bright white color. She suddenly grew twice as large and several times as heavy, nearly crushing JJ's torso. While still evolving, she leapt off and turned back to JJ, a completely new pokémon.

"Azu!" She said. Marill's evolved form—azumarill—was an egg shaped pokémon with blue bunny ears that had red insides and a tail similar to azurill's and marill's—a black zigzagging tail with a blue, bubble-like tip. JJ smiled at the azumarill. The pokémon he caught back in Johto—the small, afraid baby pokémon—was now fully evolved, and was getting stronger than he had imagined.

"Alright azumarill, growlithe, let's get rid of these guys! Flamethrower and bubblebeam!" JJ commanded. Brittany issued similar commands for her pokémon as well, all of whom seemed to repel the bats.

Once the area was clear of wild pokémon, JJ laid back down on Brittany's backpack, breathing heavily like Niko had earlier. Azumarill looked down at its trainer and touched his curly hair.

"Thanks for helping, azumarill. You've really grown up a lot. You're much stronger now, and it's so cool to see."

"Thanks to your training, you know," Brittany said, waking back over to JJ. They sat there for a moment, calming themselves down from the action when suddenly staravia came swooping down into the cave. "Oh! You're back! Did you find anyone?"

Suddenly, an abra appearing next to her, eliciting a surprised cry from Brittany. Then, a feminine voice cried from the surface above them.

"Hello? Is anyone down there?"

"Yes! Yes, we are! My friend might have broken his ankle on the landing, and we can't really get him out!" Brittany said before briefly explaining the rest of their situation. The abra then grabbed JJ's wrist and teleported them both out. Seeing what it was doing, Brittany returned her pokémon as well as JJ's. Abra then returned, and she grabbed his backpack and her own, along with the egg, before being teleported back into the fog. Moments later, Niko and Lauren ran back into the clearing with shinx.

"Oh, hey! You found a way out!" Niko shouted up into the fog above. Suddenly, abra appeared once again. "An abra? Well, then…" He grabbed Lauren by the wrist and the two disappeared from the cave and back to the fog-covered surface.

Standing in front of them, in the fog, was a short, pink-haired woman who looked to be only a few years older than Niko. She wore something akin to a pink and white school outfit, albeit far more casual, and had her long hair tied up in two golden orb-like hair ties.

"A staravia just randomly came out of nowhere earlier and alerted me and abra that you were in danger. Of course, I didn't know who 'you' were until just now, but anyways hi! I'm Mira, and this is abra."

"Nice to meet you, Mira. I'm Niko, this is Brittany, Lauren, and JJ's the one with the injury. Can we get him somewhere for him to get fixed up?"

"Oh, yeah! My house is just down the road from here, in a small town just east of here, on the edge of Mt. Coronet. Here, abra will take us there."

* * *

Once in Mira's house, JJ was set down on a couch where the local doctor checked on him. After hours of waiting, the doctor finally told them that JJ's ankle was only sprained, but he could walk on it with the assistance of crutches. They obliged, noting that they would help him treat it on their way to Hearthome City. Another half an hour went by before the doctor returned to Mira's house with a single crutch that JJ tried walking on.

"It seems to work with me. Thanks, doc,"

"No problem, JJ. Just make sure to not over-exert yourself. Also remember to put ice on it regularly, and get plenty of rest. It'll hurt for a few days, but you should be fine after that."

"Well, should we go?" JJ asked, looking at his friends, all of whom stared at him in shock.

"You just sprained your ankle, are you sure you want to walk on it?" Lauren asked with a heavily concerned tone.

JJ nodded. "Yeah, but let's eat first, actually. I don't know about you all, but I'm hungry. Mira, you in? It's on us."

Mira nodded happily, motioning abra over as they joined the group for dinner in the small town before continuing on their journey, one small, careful step at a time.

* * *

 **Author's note: A few things: 1) there is no precedent for the Wayward Cave in the anime, which is where I get some of the descriptions of locations in the pokemon world from, so I figured having most of it underground and having the group fall into the hole on complete accident sounded good enough. 2) and this is minor, but i'm going to start using pronouns to describe the pokemon. It's something I should have done a while ago, but i'm starting now, and will likely go back and edit the episodes in this season to include the pronouns for each of the pokemon in the main character's parties. Don't worry about having to go back and re-read any previous episodes, they'll just be minor edits, but I just wanted to let you know now so no one gets confused or anything. Thanks, and I hope you enjoyed the episode!**


	14. Honey and water

**Episode 14: Honey and water**

"Alright wartortle, just like we practiced. Water pulse!" Brittany shouted. The turtle pokémon attempted to conjure yet another glowing blue orb of water, this time in front of himself instead of above its head. The orb suddenly burst in between wartortle's hands with hardly any effort. "Dammit!" She said in frustration. She looked at her first pokémon, who seemed a little dejected by the outburst, and calmed down. "Sorry…I'm just mad that we can't seem to get this right."

Since leaving Eterna City, Brittany has spent much of her time trying to teach wartortle water pulse, and with little luck. Occasionally it looked like the water type might have figured it out, but shortly thereafter the orb would burst without being directed at any particular target. On one unfortunate occasion, wartortle accidentally shot it at Lauren and chimchar, who were busy working on fire swipes. The orb burst, dousing the two, and certainly pissing off the chimp pokémon, who rushed at wartortle and attacked it with fury swipes. Nevertheless, Brittany and wartortle persisted.

Meanwhile, Niko and JJ were also eager to try their hand at water pulse, teaching it to piplup and azumarill, respectively. Like with Brittany, however, the two trainers and their water type pokémon found the move difficult to learn, and much less to teach.

All the while the four trainers were slowly making their way to Hearthome City. After an incident along the foggy route 206, JJ sprained his ankle and found himself on a crutch for the following few days as a way of balancing out the exertion caused from walking all day. The slow pace of their travels also gave the four of them an opportunity to train for their upcoming competitions in Hearthome City.

The trip would take them east along route 207 until they hit Mt. Coronet, a massive mountain range that split the Sinnoh region in half. Not wanting to travel along it through the night, the group opted to camp out on the western edge of the mountains and continue in the morning. It was at this point that Brittany had her small outburst over water pulse.

She sat down against a nearby tree trunk and eased her breathing as a means of further calming down while she watched the other three training their pokémon. Wartortle sat down next to her, still looking disappointed.

"I understand it isn't easy buddy," Brittany admitted. "This is definitely one of the harder moves we've had to learn up until now. Somehow, even skull bash was easier. But…I guess maybe that's because you don't naturally learn water pulse, do you?" Wartortle shook its head after thinking it over. "Yeah, that's what I thought. But we can't give up, especially when piplup and azumarill are learning it too, right? We can't let them beat us!"

Wartortle cheered in response, and tried clasping Brittany's hand. They got back up and began trying again for another half an hour when everyone stopped for the day to eat and get to sleep before traversing Mt. Coronet in the morning.

* * *

"So…do we go _over_ it?" Brittany asked, looking up at the steep mountain range in front of her.

"No, we can't do that. Mt. Coronet goes up pretty high. At least, high enough that it snows pretty heavily at the top," Lauren noted.

"Well, then can we go around it?" Niko proposed. Leaning on his crutches to look at their map, JJ simply shook his head.

"Also no. Mt. Coronet cuts through most of the region. We'd have to go further south than…well, Sandgem Town to get across. And then to reach Hearthome we'd have to go back that same distance. It'd take weeks to do that, I guess."

"So we just go through it, then?" Brittany asked. "I don't see any cave entrances anywhere."

The group then split up to look for a way through the cavern, eventually finding one roughly a hundred yards north of their campsite. After packing up, the group slowly made their way into the cavern.

Unlike the cave from route 206, the inside of Mt. Coronet certainly didn't look man-made, but was far more spacious. The group had initially entered through an uneven tunnel, but eventually hit a large chamber half a mile into the mountain. In the chamber were small lakes and ponds on the bottom with stalactite-shaped rock formations of varying shapes and sizes lining the ceiling.

Inching their way forward, the four of them walked for some time through the chamber, eventually taking a break by one of the lakes on the opposite end of the chamber. While the other pokémon ate, Brittany and wartortle took the opportunity to practice water pulse, as did Niko and piplup, and JJ and azumarill. The three stood along the lake's edge and watched as their water pokémon practiced moving the water around, trying to bend it into the shape of an orb. Wartortle was the first to accomplish this, but his burst immediately after. Piplup and azumarill succeeded in making their orbs last long enough to launch them, but they burst relatively quickly afterwards. They all kept this up for some time before they began to get hungry and took a break, also allowing their trainers, now also somewhat exhausted, to eat as well.

"Geez, you weren't kidding, Brittany," JJ said as he removed his crutches and sat on a nearby rock, "That's a difficult move to learn. I feel exhausted just watching azumarill figure it out."

Brittany nodded wildly in response. "Yeah! That's why I keep getting frustrated! But I think it's because our pokémon might not naturally learn that move. Think about it, my wartortle knows skull bash, and that move was easier to learn than water pulse. But that shouldn't be the case, right?"

JJ pulled out his pokédex, interested in learning this. "Well, piplup doesn't learn it. Azumarill doesn't learn it. But…wartortle does. Huh…wonder why…" He put away his pokédex, genuinely curious. "Either way, it doesn't matter. All three of us are going to learn this move with our pokémon, regardless of how natural it might be, got it?"

Brittany nodded, smiling from JJ's affirmation. Meanwhile, Lauren and chimchar were training on their own, still attempting to figure out fire swipes. For a few days now, it seemed like chimchar was finally starting to understand it, with its hands now lighting on fire from the ember. The problem was, it wasn't lasting long enough—extinguishing itself after one or two swipes, which wasn't as effective.

"She's getting it…" Niko muttered to himself as he watched Lauren and chimchar practice. For whatever reason, he kept gazing at the blue-haired woman, watching her as she instructed chimchar or watched it use its move. She seemed more confident about it after their talk a few days prior, and it pleased Niko to see it.

After another round of training, the group continued on through Mt. Coronet and, after a few more hours of walking through tunnel after tunnel, eventually reached the other side. As they stepped onto route 208, according to JJ's Pokétch, they took a quick break on the mountain ledge. To their left was a waterfall that crashed down along the side of the mountain and fed into a large lake nearly a hundred feet below. There were bridges that allowed travelers to cross along smaller mountains that would lead them safely into the valley below, where a large forest awaited them a couple miles away.

By sunset, the group made it to the bottom of the mountain and into the valley, near the edge of the forest. Once more, they trained for a bit, but with little success relative to what they accomplished earlier in the day. As they went to bed, Brittany sat wartortle's pokéball next to her, suddenly feeling a closer connection to the turtle pokémon than before. Occasionally she would do this when she felt in danger or needed company. And, compared to her other pokémon, wartortle had by far the strongest bond with her, and that wouldn't break.

The following morning, Brittany and wartortle got up early to continue their training on the edge of the forest. Wartortle spent time practicing water pulse on the trees closest to their camp. However, it simply wasn't able to hit the tree. After half an hour, Niko and piplup joined in, practicing on the tree to wartortle's immediate left.

"Alright wartortle, we'll use it one more time, but after that, we should eat something and get going. We're a couple days away from Hearthome City by now."

"JJ estimates only a day, actually," Niko said, not turning to look at Brittany and instead focusing on piplup. Just as Niko finished speaking, wartortle slammed a blue orb of water into the tree trunk, creating an explosion of water that splashed across the bark of the trunk and onto the ground, as if the turtle pokémon had thrown a water balloon at it. Seeing this, piplup immediately picked up the pace and attempted it once more, also getting it correct and splashing the tree as well.

"Great job, wartortle!" Brittany cheered. "We finally did it! Now, let's try it aga—huh?"

A small orange, hexagonal-shaped creature collapsed on the ground, falling on one of its two transparent wings. Before she could run to examine it, the brunette was stopped by a loud buzzing noise emanating from the top of the trees above them. Suddenly, a large yellow cloud erupted from the trees. It looked like the wall of honeycomb with small black specks littered across them, similar to the smaller orange pokémon that fell from the tree. "Uh…Niko, JJ, Lauren…we've got a problem…"

JJ was the first to respond, as he was trying to fix up some pokémon food. "Brittany, what'd you—oh my god," He said in both fear and surprise as he turned and saw a massive wall of orange hexagons towering over them, blocking out the sun. Instinctively, he pulled out azumarill, growlithe, shroomish, and umbreon, ready to fight. As he did so, the wall crumbled into smaller hexagons, all the same size as the pokémon that Brittany saw fall from the tree. Immediately, JJ also pulled out his pokédex:

" _Combee, the tiny bee pokémon. Bug and flying type. The trio is together from birth. It constantly gathers honey from flowers to please vespiquen_."

"Vespiquen, huh? Must be the queen of these bees…" JJ observed before shouting out commands from his pokémon. Lauren, who was standing several yards behind him, also relied on chimchar, haunter, and roselia to fend off the attackers. Niko and piplup, and Brittany and wartortle joined in, but the effort was pointless, as the vespiquen revealed itself sooner than they imagined.

The bug type—which took the shape of a queen bee, only standing vertically in the air, moved its small black arms forward, causing the combee to rush at them. Once more the attacks flew back and forth.

It was then that Niko decided to simply take out the vespiquen. "Piplup, we're going for the queen. Use bubble!"

The penguin pokémon shot a stream of bubbles at the beehive pokémon, who blocked itself with a small wall of combees, again manipulating the small trio of bees using its hands. Biting his finger, Niko then ordered piplup to try water pulse again, which nearly hit, but vespiquen dodged the move. Seeing this, Brittany and wartortle joined Niko.

"What if we both tried to use water pulse, at the same time?" She suggested

"Worth a shot. Piplup!"

"Wartortle!"

"Use water pulse!" They shouted simultaneously. The penguin and turtle pokémon both conjured glowing blue orbs of water and launched them upwards at an angle towards vespiquen. The beehive pokémon once again blocked itself with combee, but the combined powers of the individual water pulses broke the wall, knocking the combee out of the air and into the trees below. Leaving vespiquen vulnerable to attack, Niko and Brittany both commanded the move again, only this time they heard a third person join in.

"Azumarill, water pulse!" JJ commanded. The aqua rabbit pokémon also conjured a blue orb of water and launched it, albeit with less power. The combined force of the triple attack was enough to knock vespiquen out of the air and into the forest below it. Seeing their queen injured, the horde of combee retreated back into the forest.

The group all collapsed onto the ground alongside their pokémon, all exhausted from the fight, knowing well enough that part of it was due to the sheer fear of having to fight the large bees and their even larger queen.

"Great job, guys," Niko said, throwing a thumbs up to each of them, including Lauren and chimchar, who smiled back with a tired look. "Piplup, you did amazing. You learned water pulse!"

"Pip! Pip-lup!" It said proudly, puffing out its chest. JJ and Brittany said the same to their pokémon, who also expressed feelings of pride.

"Oh, Brittany, look," JJ said, pointing back to the tree wartortle was practicing on earlier. "There's one left."

Standing up, Brittany and Niko, alongside their pokémon, ran over to examine the abandoned combee. Lifting it up, Brittany noticed one of its wings was bent at an awkward angle. She turned and walked back to the group to show them.

"Can we fix this?" Brittany asked. JJ and Lauren both looked at it, and seemed to shake their heads.

"We can't, but maybe a Nurse Joy can?" Lauren replied with bemusement.

"Well, I'm not just going to leave it here. Combee, we can help fix you up, but we'll need to take you to Hearthome City first. Is that alright?"

The tiny bee pokémon looked at Brittany, all three of its faces showing expressions of pain and sadness. Eventually, it nodded, and the brunette placed it on the ground.

"Let's feed it first, and then we need to get to Hearthome as quickly as we can," She said. The other three nodded, and as soon as they finished eating they walked off into the forest, not stopping for lengthy breaks like they had been since leaving Mira's town.

Once in Hearthome City, the group rushed to the Pokémon Center, which was close to the middle of the city, and therefore another half an hour trek. Once inside, Brittany hurriedly placed combee on the front desk, alerting a seemingly bored-looking Nurse Joy of her presence.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" She asked in a pleasant, yet slightly concerned, tone.

"Please, I found this wild combee's wing all bent out of shape, and I was wondering if you could fix it for me."

Nurse Joy examined the wing before looking up and nodding with a smile. "Of course we can. Is it your pokémon, or was it wild?" Brittany responded again with the latter, and Joy nodded again. "Let me take it out of your hands. I'll let you know when I'm done with it."

Brittany nodded, and walked over to one of the couches in the lounge, where the other three trainers were sitting, with JJ's egg in Lauren's lap, as she had grown accustomed to holding over the past few days.

The wait for combee took longer than expected, but eventually Nurse Joy walked out of one of the emergency rooms with a combee happily floating at her waist level. Brittany turned, noticed it, and got out of her seat to greet the combee.

"You're looking better—and happier, too."

"Indeed. The wing wasn't too difficult to fix up. You were wise to bring it here. Combee's wings are very fragile, and require a very careful operation to mend. But we were fortunate enough to get it done, and combee was very willing to let us work on it."

"Well, guess it's good-bye then, combee," Brittany said, turning to lead it out of the Pokémon Center. However, the tiny bee pokémon didn't seem to want to leave. "You're coming…right?"

"It looks like it wants to stay, Brittany," Lauren observed, standing up and walking over to the combee. "Do you want to stay with Brittany and the rest of us?"

Combee responded by hovering over to Brittany and floating by its side, evidently choosing its side. A little surprised, Brittany accepted this conclusion and caught a pokéball that Niko tossed over to her. Crouching down to combee's level, she placed the pokéball against it, and the tiny bee went into the ball before wiggling around in her palm and ultimately clicking.

Brittany smiled as she stood back up and turned to her friends and Nurse Joy, whispering a "thank you" to the nurse, who nodded and walked back behind her desk to continue working. Looking over to her friends, she added, "Time to eat? I'm pretty hungry, I don't know about you guys. And, Lauren, we've got a contest to prepare for in the morning."

Lauren smiled with a look of determination evident in her eyes. "You got that right!"


	15. Poffins, eggs, and contests!

**Episode 15: Poffins, eggs, and contests!**

"First, you have to throw the berries you want into the bowl and then add some sort of liquid—water, milk, juice, whatever—and then stir. You'll be cooking it over a hot plate, which will keep it nice and warm while you stir. But you have to be careful, JJ, because if you stir too fast you'll spray the dough everywhere or you might overheat it, which will obviously result in a burnt poffin, and you don't want that."

JJ nodded as he put on an apron and took the wooden spoon from the poffin baker. While the other three were off training for their contests or gym battle, JJ decided to check out the Hearthome Poffin Bakery, which is famous for being the first bakery of its kind in the world. Having read about the pokémon muffin in a magazine he found in Jubilife, JJ had been eagerly awaiting his arrival in Hearthome City to finally understand the recipe for baking poffins. For a small fee, he was able to learn how to bake them under the tutelage of an expert baker.

He looked down at his four pokémon, all of whom wanted to watch him make the poffin, he tried to judge the type of berry he thought they would like best. After minutes of careful consideration, he chose some rawst berries—growlithe's favorite—and some chesto berries—shroomish's favorite—and began cooking. Slowly stirring the berries around in the water he poured in moments before, JJ began to create poffins. It seemed to be going well enough until he turned up the heat, which caused the dough to solidify faster than he had originally intended. Soon enough, the dough was dark brown and difficult to stir, as the water had evaporated from the bowl and only the poffin dough—now nearly black—remained.

"Oh dear…" The baker—Sandra—said. "That—that's unfortunate. But it was only your first try. Here, let's empty the bowl and try again."

"Do I need to pay for another try?" JJ asked, his wallet at the ready.

Sandra simply shook her head. "No no, you'll be fine," She emptied the bowl and motioned for JJ to try again. Once more, he poured in the rawst and chesto berries in and began the process again, this time with Sandra's careful guidance. She helped him adjust the heat and his stirring speed as needed, and eventually he seemed to get the dough to be malleable enough to shape into muffins.

"Now, pour the dough into this tray. It'll make it into the shape of the poffin. Be careful to not overflow it, because the dough needs room to expand."

JJ poured the heated bowl of dough into the small poffin shapes, and watched as Sandra moved the tray into an oven and began cooking. They waited for half an hour before they finished. Once Sandra took the tray out, JJ noticed the blue and red colors from the berries show in the dough.

After allowing them time to cool down, JJ took one and gave it to growlithe. The puppy pokémon bit into the poffin eagerly, clearly enjoying the taste of it. JJ grabbed a few more and fed them to each of his pokémon, all of whom seemed to enjoy the tastes, even if the chosen berries weren't their particular favorite.

"Well done, JJ," Sandra said.

"Thank you so much. Now, I actually have to go now. Two of my friends are competing in the contest today. Can I come back tomorrow?"

"Of course you can. Bye now," Sandra said, waving to JJ as he ran out of the Poffin Bakery.

* * *

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Hearthome City Pokémon Contest! I'm your host, Marian, and we've got quite the show for you today! We have coordinators from all over Sinnoh and beyond competing with style and grace befitting a coordinator. For those unfamiliar, let me go through the different stages of a contest:

"The first round is the Performance Round. Each coordinator dresses up and enters a pokémon to perform. This contest will require coordinators to use two pokémon in a performance. Coordinators may use as many moves as they would like within the three-minute time limit. In the second round—the Battle Round—coordinators will face off against one another using the same pokémon from before, or a different one if they so choose to. In this contest, like with the Performance Round, coordinators will be required to use two pokémon in a Battle Round. The winner of the Battle Round will be granted the Contest Ribbon. Now, without further ado, join me in welcoming our first coordinator from…"

Marian's voice drowned out as Brittany and Lauren sat in the backroom focusing less on the first performance and more on their own. In their usually red sparkling dress and blue flower dress, the two went over their performances in their heads. Having not been prepared to send out two pokémon to perform, they had to re-think their strategies a little. There were also a fair number of coordinators competing—a total of 20, which neither of them were used to, since the only contest to come close to that amount was the Jubilife Contest.

Eventually, it was Brittany's turn to compete. Walking out onto the stage, she released two pokéballs into the air, containing combusken and pikachu.

"Pikachu, volt tackle around combusken like you usually do!" Brittany commanded. Pikachu then began to run around combusken, electricity coating her body. Eventually, she was going fast enough that she created a wall of electricity around combusken. "Now, use flamethrower!"

The young fowl pokémon opened her beak and released a jet of fire into the electric tornado. The flames caught onto the electric sparks and moved alongside them in a circular fashion, creating a beautiful combination of fire and electricity. Combusken continued to spew fire until pikachu finished running, thus ending the performance.

The crowd cheered loudly for Brittany's presentation and, after bowing, left the stage for the backroom.

More and more contestant went by until it was Lauren's turn—the last coordinator. Also taken aback by the choice to use two pokémon, she had to spend a considerable amount of time figuring out a new strategy. Feeling confident in her choice, she summoned roselia and chimchar.

"Roselia, bullet seed and water sport! Chimchar, aim your ember attack at the seeds!" She shouted. Like with the Floaroma Contest, roselia shot out a series of seeds from her red rose and spewed water from her blue one. As the two attacks collided, chimchar fired off small embers into the water sport, which created a large cloud of steam in midair. However, out of the steam cloud came small flowers of varying colors—an upgrade on her previous contest performance.

Lauren repeated the move a few more times before ending the performance, eliciting a hearty applause from the audience, of similar magnitude to Brittany's.

"Wow, they both did really well!" JJ said, clapping and cheering for Lauren.

"Neither of them had any idea it was a double performance," Niko commented, much to his friend's surprise. "Yeah! As the three of us walked into the Contest Hall Lauren overheard some other coordinators talking about it, and so she decided to ask them further. They confirmed it by showing her a pamphlet for the contest—which is apparently something contest officials are supposed to give out at big events like this one."

JJ nodded. "I see. Well, either way, they did great!"

Niko nodded. "Indeed they did."

In the backroom, Lauren and Brittany watched at Marian announced the top 16 coordinators who would move on to the Battle Round. Both of them had made it—fortunately—and would be the first and second competitors in the round, with Brittany going first against a trainer named Conroy from Sunyshore City.

As soon as Marian announced them and explained the rules, both trainers immediately summoned their pokémon. Brittany chose spheal and pikachu, while Conroy chose a cricket-like pokémon called kricketune and a psyduck.

"Pikachu, use volt tackle on psyduck! Spheal, use aurora beam on kricketune!" Brittany commanded.

"Kricketune, use sing! Psyduck, water pulse!" Conroy commanded.

The four attacks collided as the pokémon rushed in for battle. Pikachu popped psyduck's water pulse and crashed into the water type, nearly knocking it out before falling asleep to kricketune's soothing melody. Meanwhile, spheal managed to land the aurora beam, but the cricket pokémon quickly collected itself to use sing, also putting spheal to sleep.

"Kricketune, use slash on pikachu! Psyduck, confusion on spheal!" Conroy commanded. Brittany watched as her bar began to lower significantly due to her pokémon being put to sleep. After taking a slew of other hits, pikachu managed to wake up and use thundershock on psyduck, defeating it but also falling to a slash from kricketune.

"Psyduck and pikachu are unable to battle!" Marian declared, intently watching the other two battle it out. By this time, spheal had also woken up, and was ready to fight an equally injured kricketune.

"Spheal, use water gun and follow up with ice ball!"

"Kricketune, use sing!" Conroy shouted. As the cricket was about to shuffle its arms together to create a melody, it got slammed in the face by a blast of water and a hard ball of ice immediately after. "Blast it! Kricketune, use x-scissor!"

"Spheal, use ice ball to slow it down!" Brittany commanded. Spheal obliged, firing off balls of ice at the cricket pokémon, whose momentum was slowed considerably by the attack. By the time kricketune was up close on spheal, the ball pokémon released an aurora beam that finished off the bug type.

"Kricketune is unable to battle, spheal wins! And the victory goes to Brittany!" Marian declared. Brittany smiled as she picked spheal up and carried it into the backroom just as Lauren was exiting it.

"Kick ass girl," Brittany said, fist-bumping her friend as they exchanged places. Lauren simply nodded as she walked onto the stage to meet her opponent—a young girl named Sarita.

"Haunter, chimchar, you're up!" Lauren shouted.

"Aipom, Mr. Mime, you're up!" Sarita said in a sweet, but commanding, tone. "Astonish and doubleslap!"

"Haunter, night shade on Mr. Mime, chimchar, use fire swipes on aipom!" Lauren commanded. The four attacks collided, with astonish hitting haunter and doubleslap hitting chimchar. Nevertheless, Lauren's pokémon prevailed, with chimchar finally landing a fire swipes on the long tailed aipom. She commanded haunter to use hypnosis on Mr. Mime and follow up with shadow punch. After carefully putting the barrier pokémon to sleep, haunter released a quick series of ghostly punches at his opponent, knocking it out for good.

"Mr. Mime is unable to battle, haunter wins!" Marian declared.

"Chimchar, it's all on you now! Use ember on the ground around aipom!" Lauren commanded in an attempt to halt aipom's advances. The long tail pokémon used astonish once more on haunter, which hardly seemed to affect it, before succumbing to hypnosis from the gas pokémon. The purple monkey-like aipom collapsed onto the ground, where chimchar used fire swipes on it continuously until it was also defeated.

"Aipom is unable to battle, chimchar wins! The victory goes to Lauren from Canalave City!"

Lauren smiled as she crouched down and embraced chimchar and haunter (sort of) before returning the both of them and heading into the backroom to join Brittany, who congratulated her on her rather swift victory.

The two continued to watch the battles of the first round progress, keeping an eye out for potential opponents as they observed the battles. After all eight of the battles finished, Marian announced the matchups for the second round—or top 8—which included both Brittany and Lauren, who would go first and last, respectively.

Brittany walked back onto the stage to face her next opponent, a tall man with spiky blonde hair and piercing blue eyes named Sam. Sam summoned an octillery and a pachirisu to fight against Brittany's combusken and tangela.

" _Pachirisu, the elesquirrel pokémon. Electric type. A pair may be seen rubbing their cheek pouches together in an effort to share stored electricity_."

"Pachirisu, use spark on combusken! Octillery, aurora beam on tangela!"

"Tangela, use vine whip on octillery, combusken use flamethrower on pachirisu!" Brittany commanded. The vine pokémon released two vines and launched them forward at octillery, who slapped them away with one of its many tentacles and released a beam of rainbow light at tangela, who froze on the spot. Meanwhile, combusken unleashed a jet of fire at pachirisu, who countered with spark, effectively blocked the flamethrower.

"Octillery, octazooka on combusken, pachirisu use quick attack on combusken!" Sam commanded.

"Combusken, double kick!" Brittany shouted. Combusken luckily knocked pachirisu out of the way, sending it colliding into the still-frozen tangela, but was hit by a stream of ink that coated the young fowl pokémon in a black coat. "Are you alright?"

"Quick pachirisu, use spark again!" Sam shouted, thrusting his hand out in a gesture. Pachirisu, now back on its feet, released a series of electric sparks at combusken, shocking the fire type while octillery continued its own assault, this time with bubblebeam. Overwhelmed from the attacks, combusken collapsed on the ground, defeated.

"Combusken is unable to battle, pachirisu and octillery win!" Marian declared.

Trying not to panic, Brittany thought fast—tangela was still frozen, and she had to take down both octillery and pachirisu in the next…three minutes. _Still enough time…_ She thought before looking at the scoreboard on the monitor to her right, which displayed her bar nearly depleted, which indicated she had a high chance of losing the match. "Tangela, use stun spore!"

The vine pokémon clearly heard Brittany, but was unable to use any attacks due to still being frozen. Suddenly pachirisu slammed into it using a combination of spark and quick attack, which broke through the ice covering it and thawed it. However, it was short-lived, for while tangela was able to stun pachirisu using stun spore, he took another hit of aurora beam from octillery, knocking it backwards onto the ground.

Tangela struggled to get back up, his red boots flailing through the air while octillery moved towards him at a surprisingly fast pace.

"Octillery, finish it with a combination of aurora beam and psybeam!" Sam commanded. Octillery shot out two simultaneous beams from its mouth—a beam of psychic energy coated in rainbow light. It hit tangela square in the face as the vine pokémon finally got back onto his feet. Tangela collapsed onto the stage a second time, defeated.

"Tangela is unable to battle, pachirisu and octillery win! The victory goes to Sam from Veilstone City!"

Brittany walked over to tangela and picked him up. Clearly upset, she returned the vine pokémon and exited the stage for the backroom, only stopping briefly to talk with Lauren before walking out into the adjoining lobby. She sat down on one of the lobby couches and breathed heavily for a couple of minutes, as a means of calming down.

In the last battle of the second round, Lauren stepped onto the stage to face her opponent—a tall, burly man with a thick mustache whose name was Chet. He summoned a buizel and a bronzor. The buizel was an orange weasel-looking pokémon with a long tail that split into two at the end. It also bore a yellow tube around its neck. Bronzor, on the other hand, was a floating mirror-like pokémon with two yellow and black eyes.

In response, Lauren summoned chimchar and roselia.

"Buizel, aqua jet on chimchar! Bronzor, iron defense!"

"Roselia, defend chimchar with bullet seed! Chimchar, standby!" Lauren commanded. However, the "standby" command didn't seem to work in her favor, as her bar lowered slightly. Frowning, she watched as roselia halted buizel's advance with its seeds. "Keep it up, roselia! Chimchar, use ember on bronzor!"

"Bronzor, use confusion on the embers!" Chet shouted. The bronze pokémon's eyes began to glow, and the fireballs aimed at it halted in midair. "Now, fire them at roselia!"

Lauren's eyes widened as she watched roselia get pelted with embers. Taking advantage of her shock, Chet commanded buizel to use aqua jet on chimchar, which landed successfully.

"Now, let's finish them off!" Chet shouted, clearly fired up by the battle. "Buizel, water pulse! Bronzor, gyro ball!"

Lauren shook her head, worried and frustrated at the same time. She commanded roselia use mega drain/bullet seed on buizel and chimchar use fire swipes on bronzor. Both attacks launched off, with the chimp pokémon rushing at bronzor and roselia successfully using bullet seed on buizel to create a leech seed effect. However, both buizel's and bronzor's attacks landed on chimchar. The fire type howled at the water sprayed against its body and the glowing gray ball of light slamming into its stomach, knocking her backwards. She collapsed directly in front of Lauren.

"Chimchar is unable to battle, bronzor and buizel win!" Marian commanded.

Lauren grit her teeth. The mega drain on buizel was working, but for how long? "Roselia, use bullet seed and stun spore on bronzor!" She shouted.

Raising her red rose towards the steel type, roselia fired off seeds coated in the yellow stun spore. However, bronzor was far quicker, as it used confusion to take control of the seeds and fire them back at roselia, who fell to the ground stunned.

"Buizel, water pulse! Bronzor, gyro ball!" Chet shouted, balling up a fist and thrusting it forward. Both balls—one water, one gray light—collided against roselia, knocking her across the stage until she collapsed behind Lauren.

"Roselia is unable to battle, buizel and bronzor win! The victory goes to Chet from Solaceon Town!" Marian commanded.

"Ha-ha! Yes! Suck it, little girl!" Chet shouted, sneering at Lauren, who returned roselia and stomped off. Like Brittany, she was also frustrated.

As she walked into the lobby on her way to the stands, she noticed Brittany sitting her, still in her red dress, looking down at the ground from her seat on the couch. Lauren walked over and sat down next to her friend.

"You lost too…?" Brittany asked, looking over at Lauren with a defeated look.

"To a real ass, but yeah I did. You alright?"

Brittany nodded, and the two just laid back on the couch and waited until Niko and JJ found them. The boys sat down on either side of them—JJ next to Lauren, Niko next to Brittany—and the four sat silent for a bit until JJ lurched forward on the couch.

"Guys…the egg…it's…"

"It's hatching!" Lauren squealed with excitement. The four trainers watched eagerly as the red and blue speckled egg began to glow bright white before cracking on the top, revealing a small, light yellow pokémon incased in a cracked eggshell with red and blue shapes on it. Five small spikes appeared on the top of its head that formed a crown of sorts.

JJ looked down at the tiny pokémon as Niko pulled out his pokédex to examine it:

" _Togepi, the spike ball pokémon. Normal type. It transforms the kindness and joy of others into happiness, which it stores in its shell_."

"Hello there, togepi," JJ began with a warm smile. "I'm JJ. This is Lauren, and Brittany, and Niko. We're here to take care of you."

Togepi looked at each of the trainers in turn before looking back at JJ's brown eyes. It then lurched forward, nearly losing its balance, and collapsed against JJ's chest in a hug. JJ then pulled out a pokéball and caught it before summoning it back again.

"Well then, that was a nice turn of events. Whaddya say we go grab some lunch?" He asked, looking at the rest of the group.

"Sounds good to me!" Niko said cheerfully. "Lauren, we need to get training after for the Hearthome Gym!"

Lauren gave Niko an exhausted look. "Can we wait until tomorrow…?"

Niko sighed. "Fine. But I'm going to train today after checking out this place called Amity Park."

"Sounds good," Lauren said briefly before standing up. The rest of the group followed suit, and they exited the Contest Hall for food, not bothering to see who won the competition.

While they were eating at a relatively cheap sushi restaurant, JJ was explaining his poffin baking experience to the other three until something caught Niko's eye. Looking up from his plate and over JJ's head, he noticed a poster near the entrance to the restaurant. Interested, he got up, catching the attention of his friends who gave him bemused looks.

"Guys…check this out!" He said, pointing to the poster. "There's a Tag Battle Tournament tomorrow here in Hearthome City!"

"Are you thinking of entering it?" Brittany asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Yep! You all should, too! It'd be good practice for Lauren and I, but you could benefit from it too, Brittany. Even you too, JJ."

After a few moments of silence, Lauren finally nodded in agreement. "Niko's right—I should use this as an opportunity to train more."

Brittany and JJ both nodded for similar reasons, and Niko then looked back at the poster for details on registering. "We should head over and register as soon as possible," He said excitedly as he fell back into his chair and devoured his food while the other three continued their conversation on poffins, seemingly oblivious to Niko's enthusiasm.

* * *

 **Author's note: I want to note that while togepi is indeed a fairy type, the Sinnoh pokedex is not yet updated in this universe to reflect that change.**


	16. Enter the Tag Teams!

**Episode 16: Enter the Tag Teams!**

"I'll just need your name, hometown, and pokédex," The man at the registration desk asked Brittany.

"Brittany, Vermilion City, and here," She said, handing over her Sinnoh pokédex. Moments later, she was registered into the system and walked away to join her friends, all of whom had already registered with the tournament officials. "Well, I'm done too!" She announced.

"Nice, wonder when we'll get paired with our partners," Niko said, laying back on the couch in the stadium's lobby. Hours before, he had discovered the tournament on a poster in a restaurant, and as able to coax his friends into competing in it. It wasn't hard, and all four of them were excited to compete.

He looked over at JJ, who was playing with his newly hatched togepi, and Lauren, who was fiddling around with her purple and blue striped sweatshirt, pulling on the strings that adjusted the hood behind her. Laying back, he thought more about the tournament and his upcoming gym battle.

"Hey, JJ," Niko said, sitting back up and looking at his curly blond friend. "Do you know what the type of pokémon the Hearthome gym leader uses?"

JJ simply shook his head. "No idea. But didn't they mention something about the gym leader showing up for this event? Maybe you could get a word with them here?"

Niko shrugged. "Maybe so. I was only curious," He said before leaning back onto the couch.

* * *

The following day, the group walked back to the stadium where they saw a far larger crowd. As participants, they were guided onto the battlefield by some tournament officials through a lengthy hallway, which reminded Niko of his battles in the Pokémon League. Before entering the battlefield, they were each given a card with a number on it. Niko's read "7"; Lauren's "15"; Brittany's "2"; and JJ's "23."

Once they reached the battlefield, they only noticed a couple dozen other trainers standing around, either looking confused or passive as they mingled around with one another. The group largely stuck to themselves, only interacting with trainers who approached them first. After another half hour, once the stands were full, an announced began to speak.

"Hello! Welcome trainers, far and wide! My name's Enta, and I'm the MC for the Hearthome City Tag Battle Competition!" He was a short-looking man with a thick mustache. "This is a tournament-style competition similar to the Pokémon League, only you will be paired up with a randomly-selected partner from the pool of registered trainers. Since there were 32 registrants, there will be only four battles. In each of the four battles, each team will only use one pokémon—or one pokémon per trainer.

"So now, I want to make sure you have your registration cards ready. The screen above me will show the pairings for the rest of the tournament. Now, look for your number, and the number right next to yours!"

Enta then pressed a red button in front of him to reveal the pairings. 16 pairs of numbers showed up on the screen. Niko found his number—7—next to a number 15.

"Err…15? 15?" He called out, holding up his card. Moments later, someone tapped his shoulder. Turning around, he saw Lauren holding the number 15 card in her hand. "Oh…you're kidding me…"

"Hey, partner!" She said excitedly. "Looks like it's you and me against the world!"

Niko sighed. "Sure, let's do this…" He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about pairing up with Lauren. Her battling style was different than his, and certainly her training methods were. "Let's just try to not mess this up, alright?"

"Why are you worried of that? Niko, we've fought the same trainers before. Why would this be any different?"

Niko ignored the question, instead turning his head to see where Brittany and JJ had gone off to. Brittany was off chatting with a young teenage boy with dirt-blonde hair, plaid shorts, sandals, and a white t-shirt. They seemed to be talking in a cordial manner.

"Hey, Lauren, let's go over to Brittany," He said. Lauren nodded. Without hesitation, she clasped onto Niko's right wrist and began skipping towards Brittany and her partner, dragging Niko along. "Hey! Hey! Stop that!" Niko said decisively, yanking his wrist away.

Brittany giggled at the scene. "So, I take it you found your partner, Niko?"

Glaring down at a grinning Lauren, Niko nodded. "Unfortunately. And I take it you found yours?"

"Yes! This is Ian. Ian, these are my friends and travelling partners, Niko and Lauren."

Ian reached out his right hand to greet the other pair. "Pleased to meet ya! Where are you two from?" Niko answered Pallet Town and Lauren answered Canalave City. "Wow! You guys are from all over the place. I'm from Violet City in Johto, actually. Ever been?"

Niko, Brittany, and Ian got into a discussion of the Johto region and their adventures there. They had also learned that Ian was taking part in the gym challenge as well, and had won one badge already—from Hearthome City. Inquiring further, Niko found out that the gym leader—Fantina—uses ghost types. He then figured that Lauren would do exceptionally well in that battle, given how strong her haunter was.

Meanwhile, Lauren went looking for JJ. Eventually, she found him standing quietly next to who she assumed to be his partner, togepi in his arms. Standing next to him, and paying absolutely zero attention, was a tall, young man with jet-black hair that was slicked back to reveal a slight widow's peak. He wore black pants and a black dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a dark gray vest over it. To complete the look, he had black dress shoes.

"Hey JJ!" Lauren said cheerfully. "This your partner?"

Looking apprehensive, JJ nodded curtly. "Yep. This is Hunter. Who's yours?"

"Niko!" Lauren said excitedly. Like Brittany, JJ simply laughed, which seemed to annoy his partner.

"Shut up, kid," Hunter said in a deep and rather frightening tone. JJ immediately hushed up, his togepi retreating into her egg. Terrified, but also agitated by Hunter's treatment of JJ, Lauren was about to say something when Niko, Brittany, and Ian found her. It was then that Niko noticed JJ's partner, and froze in his tracks.

 _Is that…? No, can't be. That was just a dream_. He thought to himself. Realizing he was still staring at Hunter, he turned away and looked at JJ. "This your partner?" Once again, JJ nodded. "I'm Niko, pleased to meet you," He said, holding his hand out to Hunter. The young man simply swatting it away with the back of his hand. Confused, Niko stared up at Hunter, who was a few inches taller than he. "What was that for?"

"We aren't friends, we aren't partners, why should I care about pleasantries with you? I barely care about them with this kid," Hunter replied slowly. He then looked away from Niko and up to the screen, which showed the two teams that would be competing first. "We're not battling for a while, so I'll see you later," He said before leaving the group. Curious, Niko looked up and saw that he and Lauren would be competing first. Showing his partner this, she nodded before saying she wanted to eat. The rest of the group nodded, and grabbed some lunch before the first round began.

* * *

"Welcome to the first round of the Hearthome City Tag Battle Competition! I'm your MC, Enta, and we will begin with the first round of battles. Hailing from Pallet Town in Kanto and Canalave City, we have Niko and Lauren. And their opponents…both from Hearthome City, please welcome Reed and Susan!"

Niko and Lauren stood at one end of the battlefield, pokéballs in hand. Brittany, JJ, and Ian watched from in the stands directly behind them, as they usually do during Niko's Pokémon League matches. Reed and Susan, on the other end, were two blonde-haired trainers of roughly the same height and body shape—average, not too skinny or too fat. As soon as they judge explained the rules of the match, they summoned a houndour and a gligar.

"Piplup, I choose you!" Niko shouted.

"Haunter, you're up!" Lauren said as she and Niko summoned their pokémon of choice. "Shadow punch on gligar!"

"Piplup, water pulse on houndour!" Niko commanded. Reed and Susan commanded houndour to use faint attack on haunter and fury cutter on piplup. The four attacks hit almost simultaneously, leaving all four injured. Piplup was the first to get back up and run towards houndour, his beak glowing bright white. Houndour in turn rushed at the penguin, its teeth on fire as it prepared to land an attack called fire fang. However, haunter blocked it by using shadow punch which, although hardly effective, did knock the dark pokémon off of its feet and gave piplup the opening it needed.

Lauren looked up at Niko to her left and grinned. "You're welcome. Haunter, use hypnosis on gligar!"

Niko shook his head with a smile. "Piplup could've handled it, but thank you all the same. Piplup, use water pulse on houndour!"

"Houndour, get up! Faint attack!" Reed shouted angrily. The dog-like pokémon disappeared as the water pulse landed, and slammed into piplup with the full weight of its body, causing it to stumble backwards. Meanwhile, haunter's eye began to glow red and emitted red rings in gligar's direction, putting the flyscorpion pokémon to sleep. As it crashed into the ground Lauren commanded haunter to use night shade.

"Piplup, water pulse!" Niko shouted, thrusting his hand outwards. However, as he did he nearly whacked Lauren in the side of the head. "Oops, sorry."

"Watch it, mister. Haunter, shadow punch!"

"Gligar! Get up!" Susan cried out, but the flyscorpion pokémon continued to get knocked around in its sleep by the spectral punches. Meanwhile, piplup conjured an orb of water and launched it at houndour, sending it rolling across the battlefield. Angry, houndour unleashed a jet of fire from its mouth at piplup, who created another water pulse to repel the attack with. Holding out the water, piplup was about to block the attack, but fell back from the force of the flamethrower. Moments later, gligar was defeated by a second night shade.

"Gligar is unable to battle, piplup and haunter win!" The judge declared.

Reed frowned as he looked at Susan, and then back at houndour. "Use faint attack on haunter!"

"Piplup, intercept!" Niko commanded. The penguin pokémon—who was struggling to get back up on his own—managed to gather enough energy to stand in front of haunter. However, neither knew where houndour would attack from, and piplup's intervention failed when the dark pokémon hit haunter from behind, knocking both pokémon forward onto the ground.

"Flamethrower!" Reed shouted, now angry.

"Haunter, take the hit. Niko," Lauren said, looking up at her partner. "Finish this for us."

Niko nodded. "Piplup, water pulse!"

The penguin pokémon got up, spun around while conjuring the attack, and launched it through the flamethrower spraying over haunter and hit houndour directly in the face, knocking it backwards. Houndour collapsed in front of Niko and Lauren, defeated.

"Houndour is unable to battle, piplup and haunter win! The victory goes to Niko and Lauren!" The judge declared.

"Niko!" Lauren said, turning to her partner. "We did it!"

Niko nodded, looking at piplup instead of Lauren. Suddenly, he felt the full force of another human body crash against him. Looking down, he realized Lauren was hugging him from his side, her arms stretched around his waist.

"Uh, yeah, we did win. Thanks to you and haunter, really."

"Nah, it was a team effort. Piplup and haunter each took down a pokémon," She said, letting go of Niko and smiling nervously. "Anyways, let's get out of here and see the others!"

"Wow…they worked together," JJ said in surprise.

"You're surprised that they did?" Brittany asked incredulously. When JJ simply nodded, she just laughed. "Of course they did. Their friendship is stronger than it appears."

"What do you—oh hey!" JJ said, turning to his right to see Niko and Lauren sit down next to him, Brittany, and Ian. "Nice job out there!"

"Thanks. Guess we can cooperate," Niko said in surprise.

They continued to watch the next few matches until it was Brittany and Ian's turn. They were up against two trainers named Linda and Ryan. Linda sent out a luxio—a larger version of shinx, but with a thicker mane of black fur and a longer tail with a yellow star on its tip; for his part, Ryan sent out a rhyhorn as soon as the judge finished repeating the rules to them. In response, Brittany summoned her combusken, and Ian sent out a buizel.

Combusken and buizel eyed each other, at first with suspicion, but then out of a shared duty to win. Turning to luxio and rhyhorn, both rushing forward.

"Buizel, aqua jet on rhyhorn!" Ian commanded loudly.

"Combusken, use double kick on luxio!" Brittany shouted. Both ran at luxio and rhyhorn, who responded with spark and rock blast, respectively, at the same targets that were already attacking them.

Buizel burst through the rock blast, continuing on its path towards rhyhorn. It slammed into the spikes pokémon's face before bursting out of the water-coat formed by aqua jet and fell backwards, shocked at how solid the rhyhorn was. Meanwhile, combusken got hit by the spark, but was only briefly set back, as the young fowl pokémon continued on its own warpath, spinning sideways through the air and slamming both of its talons onto the spark pokémon, whose head slammed into the dirt battlefield.

"Nice job, combusken! Now, follow up with fire spin!" Brittany commanded.

"Luxio, use thunder fang!" Linda shouted, pulling back her brunette hair as she watched luxio bit down onto combusken's arm, braving the tornado of fire erupting around it.

"Rhyhorn, use horn drill!" Ryan commanded. The horn above rhyhorn's upper jaw began to glow white, and it rushed at buizel with unusual speed. However, Ian's buizel was faster, and it dodged out of the way and pursued rhyhorn using aqua jet again. This time it slammed into rhyhorn's right side and fell back onto the ground, dazed.

Combusken and luxio spent time exchanging blows, either spark for fire spin, or thunder fang for double kick. Neither was willing to give up or at least show a sign of weakness. Brittany also knew that her and Ian couldn't afford to switch opponents, since buizel was weak to electric type moves. Combusken also seemed to realize this, and as soon as she did she leaned into luxio as it was using thunder fang on the young fowl's leg and belted out a jet of orange fire into the spark pokémon's face, forcing it to let go and fall back onto the ground, covered in burn marks.

"That's right, combusken! Finish it off with double kick!" Brittany shouted, throwing a fist in the air. Ian looked over at her with mock surprise. "What…? I might be a coordinator, but that does not mean I don't get excited in pokémon battles."

Ian shook his head, laughing, while he watch buizel continue to attempt aqua jet. Just as he came up with another strategy, luxio fainted.

"Luxio is unable to battle, buizel and combusken win!" The judge declared.

"Brittany, have combusken use flamethrower at rhyhorn. I've got an idea."

Brittany repeated the command to combusken, who nodded and turned to the spikes pokémon, releasing another stream of fire from her beak. Seeing this, buizel leapt forward with aqua jet, running alongside the flamethrower and creating a cloud of steam as a result of the fire searing off the left edge of the aqua jet. Buizel then stopped once it—and the cloud of steam—were close enough to rhyhorn. Now as it disappeared into the cloud, Ian commanded it to use water pulse, which slammed into rhyhorn. Seeing his strategy, Brittany directed combusken to use double kick, which seemed to finish off the spikes pokémon.

"Rhyhorn is unable to battle, buizel and combusken win. The victory goes to Brittany and Ian!" The judge announced.

Brittany and Ian turned to each other and high-fived, making it to the second round with relative ease.

Returning to the stands, they were greeted by Niko, Lauren, and JJ, the latter of whom looked more nervous about his upcoming battle than any of them. When pressed on it, JJ said "Hunter doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would be a team player. I'm worried he'll get mad at me, which could hurt our chances of going far."

"You'll be fine, JJ. Just be assertive, that's all," Lauren said. "After all, that's what I would do if Niko was bossing me around, but he didn't and so we're all fine."

JJ chuckled. "You're right. It'll be okay."

"Plus you're a good battler, and your pokémon clearly enjoy battling, too. So what do you have to lose?" Niko asked, ignoring Lauren's comment. JJ shrugged, and nothing else was said on the matter for the following two matches until it was JJ's turn. By the time the previous battle ended, Hunter was already entering the field, prompting JJ to run for the entrance on his healing ankle. After nearly stumbling over, he made it, only to see a passively frustrated Hunter.

"Sorry, didn't think you'd get here so soon."

"'Soon'? You're kidding. We're about to start. Next time, be ready," He huffed, turning to his opponents, which were two teenage boys roughly JJ's height, but several years younger than he.

After the judge finished explaining the rules, Hunter pulled out a pokéball and summoned an unfamiliar pokémon to JJ. It was canine-like, only bipedal, and had a single spike on the back of each hand. It was largely blue, with a beige-colored fur torso and a black band running across its eyes that ended in a tied in the back, with two sacks hanging behind its head. Puzzled, JJ pulled out his pokédex:

" _Lucario, the aura pokémon. A well-trained one can sense auras to identify and take in the feelings of creatures over half a mile away_."

"Cool pokémon," JJ said, although Hunter's glare forced him to look away immediately.

"Just send out your pokémon and let's get this over with," He muttered. JJ nodded, and summoned umbreon. Their opponents—Ronan and Clayton—sent out a magmar and golbat.

"Umbreon, faint attack on magmar!" JJ commanded. The moonlight pokémon nodded, disappearing and ramming into magmar across the field. The attack landed, but umbreon cringed suddenly. "Are you okay umbreon?"

"Pfft. Damn rookie. Magmar has flame body, which instantly burns any opponent that touches it."

"Oh, didn't know that. Sorry," JJ said apologetically.

"Don't apologize to me. You made the mistake, idiot. Lucario, aura sphere on magmar!" Hunter commanded decisively. From one hand, the aura pokémon summoned a swirling mass of blue-colored energy and launched it at magmar, who didn't see the attack coming and was hit squarely in the chest, knocking it into a nearby wall. "Good, now use force palm on it!"

"Umbreon, use faint attack on golbat!" JJ commanded as the bat pokémon dove for lucario, its wings glowing brightly. Umbreon managed to intercept the attack, but soon felt magmar's body slam against it in midair, knocking all three pokémon to the ground. "What's the big idea!?" JJ asked, a mixture of anger and bemusement on his face.

"You got in the way. Not my fault, or lucario's. Now, use aura sphere again!"

Lucario nodded, launching another sphere at the mass of pokémon. It nearly hit umbreon—who was in the middle of the three targets—but fortunately the dark type moved out of the way. As it leapt backwards, it launched a shadow ball at golbat, furthering knocking it into the ground.

"Great job, umbreon! Now, use dig on magmar!" JJ commanded. Meanwhile, lucario was busy dodging a flamethrower from magmar while attempting to use force palm on golbat. Hunter hardly seemed to care, as his facial expressions didn't change much from a frown or passive frustration. Moments later, umbreon struck at magmar from under the ground, knocking it into the air, which gave lucario and Hunter the moment they needed.

"Lucario, use force palm on magmar!" Hunter shouted.

"Umbreon, shadow ball on golbat!" JJ commanded as umbreon cringed once again from the pain of the burn. Both attacks landed successfully, knocking magmar and golbat out simultaneously.

"Golbat and magmar are both unable to battle, lucario and umbreon win! The victory goes to Hunter and JJ!"

JJ turned to Hunter and held out his hand. "Good battle, partner."

Without even speaking, Hunter ignored the handshake, instead turning around and walking away.

As everyone's first round battles were finished, and the tournament wouldn't resume until the following day, the group decided to head back to the Pokémon Center for some well-earned rest, inviting Ian to join them. However, Brittany's partner declined, noting that he was meeting up with another friend for dinner and couldn't join them. So, as a result it was just the four of them, relaxing in their Pokémon Center room for most of the night, chatting and playing with their pokémon.

"So JJ, that Hunter guy sure is something," Lauren commented as she was rubbing roselia on its back.

"He's kind of an ass," JJ admitted before recounting the battle him and Hunter engaged in.

"That's, well…" Niko began, unable to find the right words to express his thoughts on Hunter. "I don't know what to tell you man. He just sounds like a real piece of work."

"That he is. Hopefully he isn't like that when he's closer to people," JJ wondered before laying back down on his bed, thinking about how to deal with his tag team partner moving forward.

* * *

"Welcome to the second day of the Hearthome City Tag Team Competition! I'm your host, Enta, and today we've got another series of hot hot hot battles for you all! Yesterday, the 16 teams duked it out, leaving eight teams remaining. For our first match, both teams got off to a good start in our opening round yesterday, can they keep it up? On one end we have Niko from Pallet Town and Lauren from Canalave City!" The crowd cheered as Niko and Lauren entered onto their end of the battlefield. "And on the other, we have another set of winners from yesterday's match—Jack from Eterna City and Kelly from Jubilife City!"

Jack summoned a stunky—a small, purple and beige skunk-like pokémon—while Kelly sent out a beautifly—a familiar pokémon to Niko. In response, Niko sent out shinx while Lauren summoned chimchar. After the judge explained the rules, the battle was on.

"Shinx, charge and tackle on beautifly, let's go!" Niko commanded.

"Chimchar, use fire swipes on stunky!" Lauren shouted.

"Beautifly, use mega drain on shinx!" Kelly commanded.

"Stunky, poison gas!" Jack directed.

" _Stunky, the skunk pokémon. Poison and dark type. It sprays a foul fluid from its rear. Its stench spreads over a mile radius, driving Pokémon away_."

All four attacks collided moments later, with shinx barely missing beautifly, who shot up into the air and—somehow—managed to use mega drain from a distance, which concerned Niko. Meanwhile, chimchar rushed at stunky, her hands lighting on fire. However, before she landed her attack, stunky turned around and sprayed poison gas at chimchar, causing her to gasp and fall backwards, writhing.

"Shinx, turn and use spark on stunk, now!" Niko commanded. Shinx nodded, running in front of chimchar while the chimp pokémon tried to gather herself again. The flash pokémon then charged up electricity in his fur and fired it at the skunk pokémon, who recoiled from the shocks flowing through its body. "Now, use charge and tackle!"

Shinx burst forward, the electricity swirling through his small body, which resulted in speeding him up. Shinx turned slightly and rammed his front right shoulder into stunky, knocking it further backwards. Niko then commanded it to use spark once more, and a slightly exhausted shinx obliged, running another round of electricity through stunky's body, which momentarily paralyzed it.

The flash pokémon then turned to beautifly, who was upon a severely weakened chimchar, about to unleash a mega drain. Shinx then rushed back at the butterfly pokémon and, on Niko's orders, used charge and tackle like usual, but also added spark to the mix once he crashed into beautifly in midair and pinned it to the ground.

Beautifly let out an ear-piercing wail at the spark surged through its wings and into its body. However, once shinx let go of it, the beautifly launched into the air again.

"Morning sun!" Kelly commanded.

"Not. So. Fast!" Lauren shouted. "Chimchar, ember on beautifly!"

"Shinx, spark!" Niko commanded. Both fire and electricity hit beautifly simultaneously, sending it crashing into the ground. Chimchar then finished it off with fire swipes before collapsing on its own.

"Chimchar and beautifly are both unable to battle!" The judge declared.

As Lauren returned chimchar, she looked to Niko, who didn't return it. Instead, he looked around at the crowd, and then at Jack and his stunky. "Shinx…let's win this. Tackle and spark!"

Shinx roared loudly to stunky and Jack, the former of which still paralyzed. He then charged up electricity in its body and rushed at stunky, ignoring his exhaustion as he moved faster than usual, slamming into stunky head-first, knocking the poison type further across the field.

"Now, bite!" Niko shouted, pointing a finger directly at stunky. He was fired up. He felt energized by this battle. Not just for his sake, or shinx's. Oddly enough…also for Lauren's and chimchar's.

Shinx rushed forward and bit down on stunky's front paw, preventing it from spraying any attacks from its rear. The stun began to wear off on stunky, but it was ephemeral at best, since shinx released another series of sparks from its body, through his mouth and fangs, and into stunky, who yelped briefly before fainting.

"Stunky is unable to battle, shinx wins! The victory goes to Niko and Lauren!"

Niko crouched low as he waited for shinx to come back to him. "You did great buddy. I'm so proud of you!" Niko said cheerfully as he rubbed the back of shinx's neck, feeling the electricity softly prickle his fingers.

"You were great, Niko," Lauren said, patting Niko on the shoulder this time. He looked up at her, locking eyes for a moment.

 _It's weird. During that battle, I felt protective of her. Like…I hated how they hurt chimchar, and therefore her. And I wanted to end it. I felt that rage building up…why?_ He thought before saying "So did you. Chimchar fought hard!"

"Did it? We fell first," She admitted before looking away and frowning.

"Nah, you just had bad luck, that's all!" Niko said, standing back up and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Chimchar's getting better."

Lauren's frown flipped to a cautious smile as she looked back up at Niko. Blinking rapidly, she nodded before walking alongside him through the tunnel and back to their friends. As they left, they noticed Brittany and Ian entering the battlefield—it was their turn, now.


	17. Anger and passion

**Episode 17: Anger and passion**

Brittany and Ian arrived on the battlefield moments after Lauren and Niko left. As they looked out to their two opponents—a young woman and a small girl, named Christy and Leah, respectively—they both began considering who they wanted to use.

"I plan on using a dragon type," Ian said, breaking the silence. "Are you fine with that?"

Brittany turned and nodded. "Cool with me. I don't know who I want to use. Maybe something that cover your pokémon's weakness."

"It's a gabite. Dragon and ground type. Primarily weak to ice types. Your combusken would work just nicely, if you want to use it again."

"I do, but I also want to give my other pokémon a chance, too. Would you mind if I used an electric type?"

"I don't mind that at all," Ian said, looking over at the judge, who had just finished explaining the rules. "Let's go, partner. Gabite, I choose you!"

"Pikachu, let's go!" Brittany shouted. Christy and Leah then summoned their own pokémon—a medicham and glameow, respectively. They made the first move of the fight, with calm mind from medicham and faint attack on pikachu from glameow. "Pikachu, take the hit but use dizzy punch once it hits, alright?"

Pikachu nodded while it awaited glameow. Meanwhile, Ian commanded gabite to use dragon rage on medicham. The cave pokémon belted out a stream of purple fire at the meditating pokémon, who quickly got out of its calm state and rushed at gabite, dodging the dragon rage.

"Gabite, use dig!" Ian commanded. Gabite jumped into the air and dove back down, dodging medicham's advances.

After feeling glameow slam into it from the side, pikachu retaliated with a punch to the side of the feline pokémon's face, knocking it over and causing it to stumble as if it had been spinning around at a fast speed. Taking advantage of the confusion, Brittany commanded pikachu to use volt tackle. The mouse pokémon obliged, bounding forward at glameow, its body coated in electricity. It slammed into glameow, knocking it further back.

"Medicham, wait for it…" Christy commanded. Moments later, gabite leapt out from behind the psychic pokémon and slashed at its back, knocking it forwards before dousing it in dragon rage.

"That's it, gabite!" Ian shouted happily. "Now, use sand tomb!"

"Pikachu, finish glameow with another volt tackle!" Brittany shouted. An exhausted pikachu charged forward with another volt tackle, defeating the confused catty pokémon. Meanwhile, gabite surrounded medicham in a swirling tornado of sand brought up from the battlefield. Pikachu paused to take a breath after glameow was defeated before joining gabite, but the cave pokémon seemed to finish the match just as quickly.

"Glameow and medicham are both unable to battle, pikachu and gabite win!" The judge declared.

"Wow, they're going to be tough opponents…" Niko said, looking up at the tournament bracket on the monitor, which showed that Brittany and Ian would be their next opponent.

"Let's just hope Ian doesn't use gabite, and we'll be fine," Lauren said after Niko nudged her in the shoulder to show her the screen. "But either way, it'll be a tough match for us."

"Yeah…at least you guys will have fun," JJ said, rather dejectedly. "I have to deal with Hunter…"

"JJ, you'll be fine," Niko said. "Like we said, just don't worry about him."

JJ nodded, trying not to think about it as he watched the next match go down. Eventually, he had to get up, albeit slowly, and get down to the tunnel that led to the battlefield before Hunter did. Fortunately for him, the black-haired trainer wasn't yet present, which gave JJ a sigh of relief, if only for a moment.

Hunter showed up a minute later, his hands in the pockets of his black jeans. "Let's go," He said demandingly. JJ, terrified by his partner, nodded and followed behind.

The two were facing a man and a woman, both roughly JJ's age, whose names were Colin and Brenda, respectively. They sent out a chatot and lickitung.

"Honchkrow, you're up," Hunter said in a commanding tone. JJ looked in awe at the pokémon flying in front of him. Honchkrow was a massive black crow pokémon with a large black crest in the shape of a fedora hat that has spikes extending from the back. Hunter looked over at JJ with a mean glare, as if urging him to summon something as well. Nodding nervously, JJ sent out growlithe. "Honchkrow, aerial ace on lickitung!"

"Growlithe, flamethrower on chatot!" JJ shouted.

"Chatot, chatter!" Colin commanded while Brenda's lickitung used rollout on growlithe. The puppy pokémon moved out of the way of the attack, pelting lickitung in flames while Honchkrow slammed into chatot, although got hit by the chatter attack, which seemed to annoy the big boss pokémon. On Hunter's orders, it turned around and slammed back into chatot using a move called night slash, which somehow seemed to defeat chatot rather quickly.

Meanwhile, growlithe and lickitung were fighting it out, the puppy pokémon using flame wheel and lickitung using rollout. JJ kept trying to gain the upper hand, but the tongue pokémon wasn't having it. Once growlithe got close enough with flame wheel, the normal type leapt into the air with surprising force and slammed back down on its opponent, temporarily incapacitating it.

"You're useless," Hunter said in reference to JJ, hardly even looking at his partner. "Honchkrow, finish it off with aerial ace!"

"Don't call my growlithe useless!" JJ spat back. Hunter ignored the comment, instead watching honchkrow knock lickitung off of growlithe. Before JJ and his pokémon could help their partners out, the big boss pokémon had defeated lickitung.

"Lickitung is unable to battle, honchkrow and growlithe win!" The judge declared.

"Pfft," Hunter said, looking away. "Your growlithe hardly helped."

"Okay, that's just not true," JJ said. "I did plenty!"

"Then why didn't you pull your own weight and help me out?"

"Well if I'm so 'useless' how could I have?"

"If you weren't useless you would have!" Hunter said, turning and getting in JJ's face. "Listen here, _kid_ , no one gets in my way. _No. One._ You hear me? That's your only warning."

Hunter immediately left the stadium, honchkrow following closely behind. JJ leaned down as growlithe ran back over to him. _We'll be lucky if we make it far after this…_ He predicted.

* * *

"Geez! What a dick!" Niko said in between bites of his meal. He was sitting with Lauren, Brittany, and JJ at one of the diners inside the Hearthome Stadium. "Really glad I didn't get him as my partner. I would've lost it on him."

"Really? You would have?" Lauren asked teasingly, raising an eyebrow. "You're not _that_ confrontational, even with me."

"You've never seen me get mad. I don't think any of you have, actually," Niko said. Brittany and JJ both nodded as they tried to think about it. "Regardless, I hope Hunter realizes one day what a jerk he is to people. If this is who he actually is, then he's got it coming for him, for sure."

"Anyways!" Lauren said in an attempt to change the subject. "Brittany, looks like we're facing off against each other tomorrow!"

The brunette nodded happily. "And I look forward to it. You two seem to have a good connection, and so do Ian and I."

" _Connection_ , huh?" Lauren said, leaning over the table to Brittany. "You like him, don't you?"

"Oh, me? No no, I barely know the guy. But he's really nice. And very communicative."

"All you need in a man, really," Lauren said, sitting back down. "Honest, kind man who will tell you what he wants or what is on his mind."

Oddly enough, Niko found himself perking up at this, wondering if he was that kind of person to Lauren. Trying to ignore it, he looked to Brittany, who was at his side.

"Either way, it'll be a good battle, I hope. You two did really well in that last battle!"

"Ian really surprised me, actually. That gabite of his…whew. It's something."

* * *

"Welcome to the third day of the Hearthome City Tag Battle Competition! I'm your host, Enta, and we've got another round of heated battles for ya! We are now down to four teams from our original 16. These four will face off in two tag battles that will decide our two finalist teams that face off later today!

"Now, for our first battle. In one corner, we have Niko from Pallet Town and Lauren from Canalave City versus Brittany from Vermilion City and Ian from Violet City!"

The four trainers stepped up to their respective ends of the battlefield.

"Alright, Lauren, I'm going to use staravia."

"Works for me. I'll use haunter."

"Sounds good," Niko said, looking down and smiling at his partner. Lauren nodded back curtly, focusing instead on the battle at hand.

On the other end, Brittany mentioned that she wanted to use her tangela. Ian hardly seemed to have a problem with it, as he wanted to use his kadabra. Once the judge finished explaining the rules, all four trainers summoned their pokémon.

"Haunter, shadow punch on kadabra!" Lauren shouted out. In response, Ian countered with kadabra's disable. The psi pokémon waved its spoon at the shadow punch, which dissolved it. "Haunter, shadow punch! Shadow punch!" she repeated. The gas pokémon kept thrusting his fists forward, but nothing was coming from them. "Blast it…night shade!"

"Staravia, wing attack!" Niko commanded.

"Tangela, use stun spore!" Brittany commanded. As the starling pokémon dove down at his opponent, he felt a wave of yellow dust overcoming it. Staravia collapsed onto the ground, unable to move. "Now, use vine whip and mega drain!"

"Staravia, double team!" Niko shouted. The flying type duplicated himself, allowing him to shift out of the way of mega drain. However, he was still paralyzed, and eventually Brittany and tangela destroyed the duplicates and turned back on staravia.

"Kadabra, psybeam!" Ian commanded.

"Haunter, dodge and use hypnosis!" Lauren commanded. The gas pokémon weaved around the beam of psychic energy and stopped midway across the field to use hypnosis. However, Ian commanded kadabra to use a move called kinesis. As haunter was about to launch its hypnosis attack, kadabra began performing tricks on the spoon in its right hand, bending it, moving it back and forth. Haunter became entranced in the attack, and hypnosis never launched. "H-haunter…? What are you doing?"

"Kadabra, psybeam!" Ian commanded. The psi pokémon released another beam of energy from its spoon, hitting haunter square in the face, knocking him over. "Now, recover!"

"Not so fast! Haunter, night shade!" Lauren replied. The ghost pokémon got back into the air and vibrated quickly, launching a shade of himself at kadabra while it was healing. The attack landed, disrupting the recovery. "Now, night shade again!" Haunter repeated the attack, catching kadabra off guard once again.

Meanwhile, staravia's energy was being drained by tangela while he got hit a series of times by vine whip. Eventually, it recovered from the temporary paralysis and shot back into the air, excited to continue fighting, but exhausted all the same.

"Alright staravia, let's finish this!" Niko shouted. "Wing attack and quick attack!"

"Niko, I'm sorry to do this. Tangela, poisonpowder!" Brittany commanded. While staravia dove down at his opponent, the vine pokémon released a purple cloud from inside the tangled vines that made up its body. As staravia crashed down onto tangela, it inhaled the poisonpowder, weakening its attack and itself. "Tangela, finish it off with vine whip!"

Tangela, reeling from the aggressive wing attack, obliged. He shot out two vines and slapped at staravia with them. The starling pokémon, however, was not finished. He used double team—on Niko's command—to evade the vine whip and launch another quick attack. But it was a far weaker attack, and staravia collapsed back onto the ground, the poison too much for him.

"Staravia is unable to battle, tangela and kadabra win!" The judge declared.

"Guess it's up to you, now," Niko said, turning to Lauren. She nodded without looking at him. Her fight with kadabra was still heated.

"Haunter, hypnosis!" She directed. Kadabra once more used kinesis in an attempt to block hypnosis, but haunter ignored it. After the red rings emitting from haunter hit kadabra, the psi pokémon fell to sleep. By this time, tangela had defeated staravia and was back in the battle, launching a mixture of stun spore and poisonpowder from inside its vines. "Night shade on tangela!" Lauren said, turning her attention to the grass type. Haunter conjured a shade of itself and released it, hitting tangela and sending it rolling backwards. "Now, finish it off with shadow punch…?" She asked in hopes that the attack was no longer disabled. Luckily, it wasn't, and the spectral fist slammed against tangela's face as he got back up, defeating him.

"Tangela is unable to battle, haunter wins!" The judge declared.

"Now, let's finish this, haunter!" Lauren shouted, thrusting her hand into the air. "Shadow punch on kadabra!"

Haunter rushed forward at the sleeping kadabra before throwing a series of shadow punches at the psi pokémon, also defeating it.

"Kadabra is also unable to battle, haunter wins! The victory goes to Niko and Lauren!" The judge declared.

"And so we have it, folks! Our first team of finalists!" Enta shouted with glee.

"Haunter, you did it! You did it!" Lauren said, attempting to hug the ghost type, but in his excitement haunter accidentally went through her, sending a chilly air through her body. In her excitement she then turned to Niko and jumped at him, wrapped her arms around his neck and hugging him. "We did great!"

Niko's cheeks flushed as he looked down at Lauren. Thinking nothing of it, he wrapped his arms around her too, feeling the softness of her sweatshirt. "We did."

He looked up to see Brittany winking and giving him a thumbs up from across the field before turning around and walking with Ian out of the stadium.

"Great job, all of you," JJ said as he met with the four others in the stadium lobby. "But, well, it's my turn, I guess."

"You'll be fine, JJ. We'll be up there cheering you on," Niko said. "Again, try and ignore Hunter."

JJ nodded. "Yeah, I'll try. But We'll just have to see. Anyways, great battle," He said with a half-smile before turning around and walking off.

"He really isn't having fun, is he?" Brittany asked, sounding concerned.

"Nope, not at all. But if he and Hunter win, then we have to face him. I'm not sure which one I would prefer."

"I'd prefer them to win. I want to beat Hunter," Lauren said, scowling as she observed JJ's partner follow him through the tunnel to the stadium.

JJ stood on the battlefield eying his opponents when Hunter approached. He hardly paid any attention to his partner as they stood side-by-side. Their opponents this time were named Fred and Sheldon—two younger boys who JJ thought looked to be a little older than Jake. Once the judge explained the rules, the battle was on.

Fred and Sheldon sent out a flareon and a bibarel, which JJ figured looked similar to the bidoof he's seen on their journeys. It was a beaver-like pokémon with a massive, flat tail and large buck teeth with brown fur covering the entirety of its body.

"Lucario, you're up," Hunter said calmly, but he hardly seemed happy about it. JJ sent out azumarill in hopes of countering flareon. "Use aura sphere on bibarel!"

"Azumarill, water pulse on flareon!" JJ shouted.

"Flareon, dodge the water pulse with quick attack, and follow up with fire fang on lucario!" Fred directed.

"Bibarel, use rollout!" Sheldon said urgently. However, despite his commands, Sheldon saw his bibarel get slammed in the chest by the blue energy sphere, knocking it backwards. "Bi-bibarel…?" He said, unable to believe that lucario beat him in a single shot. "No…no no. That's not fair!"

"It's completely fair, kid. You just suck," Hunter shouted back. "Get stronger pokémon before you enter a tournament like this. To be honest, it's pretty surprising that you even made it this far, considering how pathetic your pokémon are."

Tears welled up in Sheldon's eyes as he returned bibarel. Angry, confused, and saddened, he sat down on the ground, likely pondering Hunter's cruel words. Meanwhile, flareon moved out of azumarill's path and attempted to bite down on lucario with its fiery teeth. The aura pokémon spun around and kicked flareon with the back of its foot, knocking the flame pokémon to the ground. Before azumarill could do anything, lucario conjured a white glowing stick in the shape of a large bone and slammed it down on flareon, defeating it too.

The judge, looking incredulous at the swiftness of Hunter's victory, declared "Flareon and bibarel are both unable to battle. Azumarill and lucario win! The victory goes to JJ and Hunter!"

As Hunter was returning his pokémon, JJ grabbed him by the shoulder. "Listen, why were you so mean to that kid? Why?" JJ was now shouting.

Hunter whipped around and ripped JJ's hand off of him. "He's weak. Trainers like him don't belong in competitions like this, especially this far in. What the hell did I say about getting in my way?"

Before JJ could respond, Hunter was already leaving through the tunnel.

* * *

At lunch following the battle, JJ hardly spoke, both out of anger and due to a lack of words to accurately explain his feelings. Eventually, he simply looked at Niko—who was across from him, and Lauren—who was sitting next to him—and stated the obvious. "Guess we're facing you guys, now," JJ said, angered by his partner's attitude. He aggressively forked his food, choosing not to eat much of it.

"Yeah, and I don't care who wins, as long as I can beat Hunter up," Lauren said, balling her hand into a fist. "That boy is such an ass!"

"And hopefully we can," Niko added. "Seems like he needs someone to beat him to put him in his place."

The rest of the group nodded and silently continued with their lunch, trying to fend off thoughts about JJ's insolent partner.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, after three rounds of tag team battles, we finally have to finalist teams! On one end, we have Niko and Lauren! On the other, we have JJ and Hunter! Both teams have shown us some incredible battles already, so let's see if they can deliver the same for this one!" Enta announced through the microphone.

Niko looked across the field at Hunter and JJ, to see if the former was saying anything to his friend. As it turned out, Hunter chose to ignore JJ as usual. Pulling out his sole pokéball, he waited for the judge to finish explaining the rules before going. Once he was finished, it was on.

"Turtwig, I choose you!" Niko shouted.

"Chimchar, let's go!" Lauren said.

"Shroomish, you're up!" JJ declared.

"Toxicroak," Hunter said simply, summoning a purple amphibious type pokémon with an upward-curling spike on its head, a bulbous red sac on its throat, and three fingers on each hand—with a fourth finger that looked more like a large and red spike that protruded from its hand in a long curve.

"Chimchar, fire swipes on shroomish!" Lauren said. "We should try and take shroomish out first. That way we can both deal with toxicroak together."

"It might be better to knock toxicroak out first, actually," Niko replied, leaning over to his partner. "Because if it's us two versus shroomish, we can win."

"That's true. Chimchar, switch to toxicroak!" Lauren shouted.

"Turtwig, razor leaf on toxicroak!"

"Shroomish, intercept the attacks and use stun spore!" JJ shouted. However, as shroomish was about to jump to protect toxicroak, the toxic mouth pokémon's right hand began to glow purple and it stabbed shroomish, jabbing its spike into the top of the mushroom pokémon's head. Toxicroak then picked it up and, in an arc-like motion, tossed it in the opposite direction before rushing at chimchar and slapping her across the face, knocking the chimp pokémon away.

"Good job, toxicroak," Hunter said, crossing his arms. "Now, use faint attack on turtwig!"

Toxicroak nodded, disappearing and reappearing behind turtwig, slamming one of its hands down on the tiny leaf pokémon.

"Hey! Why'd you attack _my_ pokémon?" JJ snapped.

" _What_ did I tell you!?" Hunter shouted without looking at JJ. "Do NOT get in my way! Toxicroak, come back to me. Poison jab."

"What's…going on…?" Lauren asked, briefly looking over to see if chimchar was alright. The fire type got back up, but was watching what Hunter was about to do. Turtwig, too, looked bemused, and turned to its trainer for answers.

"I don't know…" Niko responded. "But it can't be good. Turtwig, razor leaf!"

Lauren nodded in response. "Chimchar, fire swipes on toxicroak!"

JJ turned to Hunter, fear setting in as his partner motioned over to shroomish. Toxicroak nodded, and with incredible strength, bounded towards the mushroom pokémon. The spike on its right hand began to glow purple, and it stabbed shroomish with it, instantly defeating the grass type. Just as it did so, chimchar jumped on toxicroak's left side, her hands on fire as she slashed and clawed at the frog pokémon, who simply grabbed chimchar by the neck with its other hand.

"NO!" JJ shouted, running onto the field to pick shroomish up, ignoring the toxicroak a few feet away from him. "No, no…shroomish, are you alright?"

The mushroom pokémon nodded weakly before falling unconscious. Filled with a mixture of feelings, JJ returned shroomish and, out of anger towards his partner, left the field.

Niko looked over at Lauren incredulously, but realized there were other problems she was dealing with. Toxicroak was now choking chimchar, who swiped at it without success. Tears welled in Lauren's eyes.

"CHIMCHAR!" She shouted.

"Turtwig, razor leaf!" Niko commanded a third time. This time the tiny leaf pokémon unleashed a flurry of sharp leaves at toxicroak's legs, knocking it backwards and forcing it to let go of chimchar, who collapsed to the ground. "Turtwig, bite on toxicroak!"

Turtwig nodded, rushing forward and grabbing onto toxicroak's foot, biting down and lurching left and right with it. Hardly injured, toxicroak got back up and used poison jab to swat the tiny leaf pokémon away. It slowly got up and moved over to chimchar, who was struggling to get back up.

"Chimchar!" Lauren said, another tear dripping from her face. "Be strong, you can do this! You can fight!"

Hearing this, the chimp pokémon rose onto its two feet, opened its mouth, and cried out as loud as she could. As she did so, she began to glow a bright white color. She quickly grew into a pokémon nearly twice her original size. The new pokémon had a longer tail with a flame burning on its tip as well as thicker arms and legs. She had small, brown eyes and a thick blue marking that ran over both eyes with a red marking in between the eyes. Lastly, she had a small tuft of orange fur on top of its head.

Curious, Brittany pulled out her pokédex to see the new pokémon:

" _Monferno, the playful pokémon. Fire and fighting type. It skillfully controls the intensity of the fire on its tail to keep its foes at an ideal distance_."

"Go turtwig and monferno!" Brittany shouted, wondering at the same time where JJ had gone off to.

Feeling fired up, Lauren wiped away the tears and screamed out. "Monferno, use fire swipes!"

Instead, the playful pokémon balled her hand into a fist that began to glow. She then rushed at toxicroak with newly found speed, punching the toxic mouth pokémon across the face. She repeated the attack multiple times before getting jabbed once more by toxicroak's poison jab. It was hit with enough force to knock the fire type across the field.

While monferno was recovering from the attack, toxicroak turned its attention to turtwig, who was also trying to get back up. Feeling energized by monferno's evolution, turtwig rushed at toxicroak to use bite, but was punched in the face by toxicroak's poison jab.

"Toxicroak, finish turtwig off with faint attack!" Hunter said calmly. The poison type obliged, disappearing before slamming into turtwig's side, knocking the pokémon to the ground and finishing it off with a relatively light poison jab.

"Turtwig is unable to battle, toxicroak wins!"

"Monferno, fire swipes!" Lauren shouted. "We have to win this! It's up to us now!"

Monferno nodded, and rushed back towards toxicroak, who bent its knees into a fighting stance, ready to do combat with the playful pokémon. Monferno got close up to her opponent, launching swipe after swipe at the poison type. With her newfound speed she was also able to dodge most of toxicroak's attacks, until Hunter decided to have his toxicroak use a move called sucker punch.

Monferno slashed at the toxic mouth pokémon with its fire swipes, but moments later toxicroak jabbed at monferno with enough force to launch her into space. Instead, the playful pokémon was sent flying backwards, landing at Lauren's feet.

"Monferno is unable to battle, toxicroak and shroomish win! The victory goes to JJ and hunter."

"That loser deserves none of the credit. Pfft."

Niko looked up upon hearing Hunter's comment. "What was that!?" He spat back. Hunter turned around, looking as if he had never heard Niko's voice before. While Enta was busy wrapping up the details of the match, Niko marched across the field, ignoring Lauren, who was telling him not to get involved. "You want to talk bad about my friend?"

"Yeah, and I'll talk about you too. You lost. Pretty badly, too."

Niko's left hand balled up into a fist, and without a second thought, he directed it at Hunter. The taller man grabbed the fist in his palm and quickly jabbed Niko in the side, causing his knees to buckle. Niko collapsed onto the ground, gripping his lower right side.

"Are you okay?" Lauren asked, sitting down next to Niko. Monferno was standing next to her as well, also looking concerned.

"No, I'm not okay," Niko said, getting up and following Hunter through the tunnel and out into the lobby. There, he saw JJ sitting on a couch, looking exhausted and holding shroomish on his lap. The mushroom pokémon looked much better, which made Niko assume JJ had taken the pokémon to Nurse Joy for a quick check-up. He then turned his attention back to Hunter. "No one talks about JJ like that. NO ONE!"

Hunter turned around, again acting as if he had never Niko's voice before. "Listen, kid. You're a loser. He's a loser. You deserve nothing. Keep trying to be some 'good friend' or whatever, but that doesn't make you stronger. It shows weakness. I refuse to acknowledge that."

As he turned his head away, Niko could have sworn he saw a smirk on Hunter's face, as if everything he has done was intentional.

Still grabbing at his side, Niko looked down at the ground. Furious, he turned to Lauren, and then to JJ, who had heard Niko screaming at his former partner.

Moments later, Brittany and Ian showed up. The five of them sat down on the lobby couches and talked about everything that had just transpired.

"Thanks for sticking up for me, Niko," JJ said with an honest smile.

"No…no problem," Niko replied. "But I didn't really do much."

"You did _something_ , though," Brittany said, lightly touching Niko on the knee. "That's worth appreciating."

"But it isn't like I could defend JJ. I-I'm just so confused."

Without warning, he got up and left the lobby to be alone.

"What's wrong with him?" Ian asked with a look of concern.

"I don't really know…maybe he's feeling like he isn't strong enough to protect his friends, but also that he acted out like that," Brittany said after thinking about it for a minute. "He doesn't like getting angry. I think the emotions were too much for him to handle. Like, he couldn't control them."

* * *

Niko looked up at the sunset-soaked pond in front of him from the wooden bench he was sitting on. To his left, he had shinx and piplup. To his right, turtwig. And behind him sat staravia.

"We need to get stronger, you guys," Niko said. "We have to be able to defend our friends. They'd do the same for us."

He looked at turtwig in particular. The tiny leaf pokémon didn't feel good, presumably as a result of the finals. The other pokémon looked at turtwig with awe when Niko recapped the battle for them. Even shinx nodded appreciatively in turtwig's direction. All of this seemed to make the grass type feel better, but he was still reflective of Niko's mood as well.

"We have a gym battle coming up here, too. It's a ghost type, and I don't know how we're going to handle that, but I want all four of you to give it your best. And I know you guys can. You proved it to be in this tag battle competition. Especially you, turtwig."

As he looked fondly on the tiny leaf pokémon, he noticed Lauren approaching him.

"There you are," She said with a smile. "Brittany said you liked to sit in parks or near fountains when you needed some time alone."

"That's not true!" Niko said, bemused and amused.

"She was also joking," She sat down next to turtwig, petting it on the head. "How are you doing? You were pretty upset earlier."

Niko shook his head. "A lot of things upset me today. I don't even know why—like, how Hunter treated JJ shouldn't have gotten me as uptight as I was."

"You've got a lot of pent-up feelings and emotions, maybe. I understand that."

"You do?"

"Of course I do. We all do at some point. It's not healthy at all, but it's something," She picked turtwig up and sat the pokémon on her lap. She then inched closer to Niko, eventually leaning her head on his shoulder. "But you'll be okay. I know you will."

"You barely know me."

"You're a pretty predictable person, Niko. For some odd reason, that's what I admire about you."

She then looked up at her tag team partner. For a moment her dark eyes met his blue ones. Then, unexpectedly, she lurched forward and planted her lips on his. A flurry of emotions swirled through both Lauren and Niko, and before the latter could realize what was happening, he moved away.

Lauren retreated as well, looing away shamefully.

"Err…sorry…" She said. "Caught up in the moment, I guess."

Niko didn't say anything, only looking away. In the corner of his eye, he could see shinx and piplup staring up at him with wide eyes, unsure about what they just saw. Turtwig, still sitting in Lauren's lap, was even more confused and surprised.

"I should go…" She said, setting turtwig aside and walking out of the park.

"Wait," Niko said. Lauren stopped, but didn't turn around. "Thanks for the talk. And for being my partner in this competition."

He couldn't see it, but Lauren smiled childishly. She then ran off in the direction of the Pokémon Center.

* * *

 **Author's note: Just a quick note here, since I'm fully aware of how long this chapter is. Hunter is becoming a more difficult character to write than I had originally imagined him to be. He sounds more edgelord-y than intended, but I plan for him to be more of a formidable character moving forward for all of them, but in particular for Niko. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this episode, as a lot happened in it!**


	18. Soulful dance

**Episode 18: Soulful dance**

Lauren woke up in the middle of the night. Looking around, she saw roselia sleeping to her right, haunter floating in the middle of the air, and monferno sleeping on the floor, its tail illuminating her corner of the Pokémon Center's room like a nightlight.

She lay back in bed and stared at the dimly lit ceiling. It had been a long day—two rounds of battles in the Tag Team Tournament, in which her and Niko—her friend and partner—lost in the finals to her other friend, JJ, and his partner, Hunter.

Then there was Niko losing his temper towards Hunter when he treated JJ with disrespect. This emotional flare of his confused and further angered him. Seeking out his company, she found him in Hearthome City's Amity Park. There, she essentially confessed that she had some feelings for her travelling companion, and in a moment of passion kissed him. Embarrassed, she ran out the park, confused herself.

Seeking out different company, she found JJ, Brittany, and Ian—Brittany's tag team partner—saying farewell to the latter. Ian was travelling north to Eterna City. After he left, Lauren nervously sat down on the couch in the Stadium's lobby and sat quietly for a while, watching JJ nurse shroomish back to health with azumarill's help. Brittany was watching combee flutter around the lounge. Lauren had hardly seen the bee pokémon since Brittany had captured it several days prior, and so the presence was appreciated. She found combee's flying to be rhythmic in an odd sort of way, and it seemed to calm her down.

 _I have to push Niko out of my mind now. We have a gym battle to get ready for. I need to put all my energy towards that. Not towards some boy I met a couple weeks ago._

"Lauren, you okay?" Brittany asked when she noticed Lauren's quickly changing facial expressions. The blue-haired girl's head shot up in surprise.

"Oh, yes! Of course. Just a lot on my mind."

"Want to talk about any of it?" She asked with a sincere smile. Combee fluttered over to Lauren's immediate right, all three faces smiling eagerly. Feeling better, Lauren pet the top of combee's head, right in the ridge between the top two heads on the three-headed bee. Combee emitted a lot buzzing sound, almost akin to a purr. "Combee really likes when people do that."

"Combee is a calming pokémon. You're lucky to have it."

"I think so. Hopefully it can participate in a contest soon," Brittany added, seeming pleased with herself. "I didn't want to throw it into this tournament, since I haven't actually battled with it yet."

"That makes sense," Lauren said. The two continued to talk until JJ was certain shroomish was feeling better. Upon returning the pokémon, Niko showed up in the lounge, piplup by his side. Neither he nor Lauren looked at one another, a small detail that JJ and Brittany didn't immediately notice until dinner when the two didn't directly speak to one another, with the exception being their gym battle. They both agreed to see the gym leader, Fantina, the following day. They also agreed to have Niko go first this time, since Lauren went first in their last gym battle, following the tradition Niko and Fay set when they took on the gym challenge together.

The flashbacks from the previous few hours kept playing back in Lauren's head as she tried to fall back asleep. Occasionally she would look up and see Brittany, JJ, and Niko sleeping alongside their pokémon. Looking over at Niko, she noticed how peaceful his pokémon were. Shinx and turtwig were curled up at the end of his bed with piplup sleeping to his left and staravia perched on a chair on the other end of the room. Smiling, she fell back onto her pillow and went to sleep minutes later.

* * *

"There it is," Niko said, looking up at the Hearthome gym, which looked more like a gothic church than a pokémon gym. Leading the group inside—Lauren conspicuously walking behind the other three—they saw that the inside of the gym was very much like the outside. The ceiling was as high as the building itself—no secondary stories—and had massive stained-glass windows adorning the back wall, letting the midday light roll through them.

At the other end of the room they saw a tall woman in a long purple sparkling dress dancing around with what appeared to be a small drifloon. Classical music was playing as she held drifloon's stringy "legs" and slowly shifted her body in different directions. After a few minutes, she noticed the group standing in front of her, and stopped dancing, leaving the music to play in the background.

"Ah, I recognize you!" She said in a noticeably french accent. "You four all compeeted in the Tag Team Competition, no? And you zree," She pointed at Niko, Lauren, and JJ, "All made eet to the finals? Well done, all of you. Although the curly one seemed to have some difficulty, yes. But you partner was, erm—how do I say eet—dominating."

"That's a nicer way of putting it, I guess," JJ said, peering away from Fantina.

"Indeed. Well, should I assume that you are challenging me for the Relic Badge, hmm?"

"Well, Lauren and I are."

"Ah! The runner-ups! Will you be battling me separately, or togezzer?" Niko and Lauren both simultaneously answered separately, with Niko offering to go first, as they planned. "Ah, right. Niko, was eet? A three-on-three battle sounds fine, no? Great! Well zen, let's geet starteed. Oh, and by thee way, my name ees Fantina, in case you didn't know. Drifloon, honey, let us dance with our new partner, no?"

The balloon pokémon floated over in front of Fantina. Niko then pulled out a pokéball that contained shinx, and quickly summoned the pokémon. Fortunately, there was a judge on stand-by who had been silently sitting in the stands, listening to the music while Fantina danced. By the time the group had arrived, he had fallen asleep, only to be awoken by the conversation between Fantina and her new challengers.

"Shinx, use spark!" Niko commanded.

"Drifloon, gust!" Fantina commanded. The ghost type spun the strings hanging from its body quickly to conjure a gust of wind from behind it. Shinx braced itself, lowering his body to the ground to keep himself steady through the gust. Once the attack ceased, the electricity in his fur released itself in the form of a series of focused sparks, which successfully hit drifloon. "Now, minimize, dear!"

Drifloon deflated significantly, making it smaller and more difficult to see. Niko commanded shinx to be on high alert, as drifloon could easily float out of sight. Fantina then commanded drifloon to use ominous wind.

Shinx and Niko felt a chill run down their spines as the ghostly wind swept past them. Still cold from the attack, shinx's movements were significantly slower, and he acted as such when Niko tried to get him to use spark in every direction, mostly as a way of hitting drifloon more effectively. Unfortunately, the flash pokémon was far more accustomed to focused attacks, and was hardly able to hit in multiple directions. Displeased with this, Niko bit his finger, as was his custom when he got nervous or into a tight spot in a battle.

"Shinx, charge up as much electricity as you can," Niko said, hoping that his strategy could work. Meanwhile, drifloon kept floating around the battlefield in rhythm with the classical music. Niko considered trying to watch the pokémon's movements in concert with the music, but he didn't follow through, since he didn't recognize the symphony playing. After a while, the flash pokémon became so electrized that Niko could see sparks flying off of him.

"Drifloon, use ominous wind!" Fantina commanded.

"Brace yourself, shinx! Hold in that electricity just a little longer, okay?" Niko said as he covered his face to brave the wind as well. Shinx grounded himself once more to avoid being blown away. Once drifloon's attack finished, Niko and shinx found their moment. "Shinx, unleash your electricity using spark!"

"Drifloon, minimize!" Fantina commanded. The balloon pokémon shrunk once more, but it hardly mattered. Using up virtually every bit of energy he had left, shinx discharged all of his stored up electricity, creating a wave of sparks in every conceivable direction. Niko even had to hid behind some stands for a moment until the attack finished. Once it did, though, drifloon was on the ground of the battlefield, defeated. Incidentally, so was shinx, who was too exhausted from the attack to continue.

"Drifloon and shinx are both unable to battle. Both trainers will now send out their next pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Duskull, you're up!" Fantina commanded.

"Piplup, let's go!" Niko shouted. "Use water pulse!"

"Duskull, future sight!" Fantina directed, suddenly sounding more fired up. This might have been because the music itself was taking a more dramatic turn. The requiem pokémon's single eye began to glow a dark red as two balls of psychic energy burst out and into the air, seemingly dissolving in midair. "Now, use will-o-wisp!"

The blue fireballs collided with the orb of water piplup conjured, bursting in the middle of the battlefield. Duskull then shot forward to use pursuit, but piplup deflected it with peck, snapping to the side as the ghost type tried to flank him. Duskull collapsed onto the stone-cold floor. Piplup then followed up with another water pulse, which burst in duskull's face, knocking it further backwards.

"Great job, piplup!" Niko shouted, cheering his penguin pokémon on. "Now, use bubble!"

"Piiip!" Piplup cried out, opening his beak and releasing a flurry of bubbles at duskull, who evaded and shot a white hot flame at piplup, burning the penguin's right flipper. "Pip!"

"Are you okay?" Niko asked. Piplup glared at his trainer before nodding, and looking back at duskull. "Great, let's use water pulse again!"

"Duskull, pursuit!" Fantina commanded. Duskull rushed forward once more, weaving out of the path of water pulse to attack piplup. However, the penguin conjured another orb of water just as the requiem pokémon closed in on him. Piplup shot the water pulse at close range. The attack exploded only a few feet away from its creator, knocking the penguin backwards a bit, but doing significant damage to duskull.

"Finish it off with peck!" Niko shouted, thrusting his fist outwards. Piplup bounded forward at duskull, its beak glowing bright white and growing a little before colliding with duskull's mask, cracking it, and defeating the ghost pokémon.

"Duskull is unable to battle, piplup wins!" The judge declared. Fantina returned her pokémon, lamenting its defeat, and sent out her third and final pokémon.

"Mismagius, I choose you!" Fantina shouted. Her final pokémon was a purple ghost pokémon with a round head and elaborate-looking tufts atop its head that looked like a witch's hat. It had a thin, red mouth in the shape of a "W" and a long neck that connected its head to its floating body, which resembled a small, floating dress. Brittany, Lauren, and JJ all gathered around a pokédex as they analyzed the pokémon:

" _Mismagius, the magical pokémon. Ghost type. It's cries sound like incantation. It is said that the cry may rarely be imbued with happiness-giving power_."

"Mismagius, use magical leaf!" Fantina shouted, moving her body slowly left and right in rhythm with the music. The magical pokémon conjured dozens of purple leaves from out of nowhere and launched them all at piplup at once. The penguin pokémon, not seeing the attack coming, was overwhelmed by the attack, getting easily knocking down.

"Piplup, get back up! We can do this!" Niko shouted. Piplup nodded, stepping back onto his flippers. "Use water pulse!"

As piplup conjured the attack, two orbs of psychic energy appeared on each side of him and slammed into him, disrupting the water pulse. Piplup fell to the ground a second time, this time being held up by his two arm-flippers.

"Piplup, you're not one to give up. Don't do it now…" Niko said with a sense of urgency. Piplup nodded, but just as he did so, mismagius launched another magical leaf, which essentially ended the penguin pokémon's battle.

"Piplup is unable to battle, mismagius wins! Niko will now send out his third pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Turtwig, you're up!" Niko directed. "Use razor leaf!"

"Mismagius, shadow ball!" Fantina commanded. The magical pokémon conjured an inky ball spectral ball and launched it down at the tiny leaf pokémon, who deflected it with razor leaf, which caused the shadow ball to dissipate quickly. "Now, use psybeam!"

"Turtwig, razor leaf again!" Niko shouted, not wanting to give up any ground to Fantina. Turtwig released another round of sharp leaves at his opponent, this time landing his attack successfully, but also getting hit by the psybeam. "Get closer!"

Turtwig nodded and ran forward towards his opponent, stopping midway across the stone battlefield to launch another razor leaf at mismagius. Once more, the attack hit, but the magical pokémon countered with shadow ball, which also hit turtwig.

"Dear, use confuse ray!" Fantina commanded. Mismagius nodded, summoning glowing yellow orbs from around its body and launching them all at once towards turtwig.

"Use absorb on them!" Niko shouted, an idea suddenly coming to mind. Understanding out confuse ray works, generally speaking, Niko figured he might be able to manipulate the attack in some way. Turtwig's seedling began to glow a bright green color, and suddenly the orbs from confuse ray went _inside_ turtwig. "Wow…that actually worked. Great! Turtwig, use razor leaf!"

Now imbued with more energy, the tiny leaf pokémon launched another series of leaves at mismagius, who retaliated with magical leaf. However, turtwig's attacks seemed to overpower his opponent's, and mismagius fell to the ground, overwhelmed by the razor leaf.

"Turtwig, let's finish this! Use bite and absorb!" Niko commanded. Turtwig ran towards the fallen ghost type, who launched a shadow ball at its opponent. Turtwig took the hit, not bothering to risk slowing down by moving out of the way, and just as mismagius was beginning to float back upwards, turtwig leapt into the air and bit onto the magical pokémon's arm, bringing it back to the ground. Turtwig slammed mismagius onto the stone floor, his seedling glowing from the energy he was sapping from his opponent. Mismagius cried out as it slowly weakened, eventually fainting from a lack of energy.

"Mismagius is unable to battle, turtwig wins! The victory goes to Niko!" The judge declared.

Niko crouched down as turtwig ran back to Niko and leapt into his arms. "Great job, buddy! You did excellent!" He then turned to his right to see Lauren standing beside him. "Oh, hey."

"Hey," she responded curtly.

"Well, err, good luck," Niko said with a half-smile and a quick nod, walking into the stands to join Brittany and JJ while still holding turtwig. The tiny leaf sat in his lap as he watched Lauren's match.

For a couple minutes Lauren stood there, considering her strategy as she awaited Fantina's return. Once the gym leader waltzed back into the main room, she had her first pokéball at the ready. Fantina, this time, summoned duskull first. Lauren retaliated with roselia.

"Use bullet seed!" Lauren shouted to initiate the match.

"Will-o-wisp, darling!" Fantina commanded. The requiem pokémon summoned a series of white-hot fireballs that burned up the bullet seed fired at it and collided with roselia, knocking the thorn pokémon backwards. "Now, pursuit!"

After briefly stumbling, roselia gathered itself. "Use water sport!" Lauren directed. Roselia nodded, spraying water from both of its rose-hands at duskull, which seemed to slow it down. "Now, bullet seed and stun spore!" She shouted again. Roselia pointed its blue rose at duskull, who was quickly upon her, and released a round of yellow-coated bullet seeds, which halted duskull in its tracks. "Now, bullet seed and mega drain!"

Roselia lowered her red rose and directed it at duskull, firing off another round of seeds, this time glowing green ones that sapped duskull's energy and transferred it to roselia through the air. Once this finished, duskull was able to move again.

"Use future sight!" Fantina commanded. Duskull's red eye started glowing ruby red as another couple of psychic orbs floated into the air, disappearing several feet above the battlefield. Meanwhile, roselia continued to drain its energy. Duskull managed to get in a will-o-wisp, increasing the side of the burn on roselia's chest.

"Duskull is unable to battle, roselia wins! Fantina will now send out her second pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Mismagius, I choose you!" Fantina commanded, summoning her ace pokémon, judging from her battle with Niko. "Use psybeam!"

"Roselia, counter with bullet seed!" Lauren directed. The thorn pokémon obliged, raising her blue rose to fire off a series of glowing seeds that collided with the beam of psychic energy. However, mismagius was still more powerful, and managed to knock the bullet seed and hit roselia, who was also taking damage from her burn mark. The thorn pokémon fell to the ground, suspending itself by its two rose-hands. "You can do it, roselia!" Lauren said positively. "Now, use bullet seed and mega drain!"

"Deflect it with shadow ball!" Fantina shouted, the music in the background hitting a dramatic low note. Roselia managed to lift herself back up and fired off another round of bullet seeds before feeling her burn once more, causing her to clutch at her chest with both rose-hands while getting pelted by mismagius' shadow ball. Finally, the thorn pokémon collapsed.

"Roselia is unable to battle, mismagius wins! Lauren will send out her second pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Monferno, let's go!" Lauren commanded. "Use ember!"

"Mismagius, psybeam!" Fantina said lazily. The psybeam, like with bullet seed, overpowered the ember. However, it didn't hit monferno, whose newfound speed and agility allowed it to evade the attack that instead landed in its former spot on the stone floor of the battlefield. Monferno then rushed toward mismagius, leaping into the air in a similar fashion to turtwig in the previous battle. It then grabbed onto mismagius and fired off a series of embers onto the magical pokémon.

Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, the future sight struck again. Two psychic orbs reappeared and struck monferno from both sides, causing the playful pokémon to collapse onto the ground. Seizing the opportunity, Fantina commanded mismagius to use psybeam on monferno. The attack hit the fire type straight in the torso, quickly defeating the playful pokémon.

"Monferno is unable to battle, mismagius wins! Lauren will now send out her final pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Haunter, you're up!" Lauren shouted. "Use night shade!"

"Counter with psybeam!" Fantina commanded. Mismagius released a psybeam that collided with haunter's spectral shade, causing both attacks to explode in midair. "Now, use shadow ball!"

"Block them with shadow punch, haunter!" Lauren shouted. The gas pokémon nodded, punching away the inky black ball, causing it to dissipate in midair. "Now, follow up with another shadow punch!" She directed, thrusting her own fist through the air, as if she were attacking. Haunter launched another spectral fist towards mismagius, slamming it in the face and knocking it across the battlefield, past Fantina and through the back window.

Mismagius returned moments later, quickly descending to the ground where it fainted in front of Fantina.

"Mismagius is unable to battle, haunter wins! Leader Fantina will now send out her final pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Very well. Drifloon, I choose you, dear!" She commanded, summoning her ghostly balloon pokémon. "Use ominous wind!"

"Hypnosis, haunter!" Lauren commanded, but it was too late. Haunter felt the chilly wind slap against its ghostly body. Haunter looked more uncomfortable than he had in a long time from Lauren's perspective, and looked to have weakened considerably from the attack. Nevertheless, the gas pokémon released red rings from his eyes that quickly put drifloon to sleep. "Now, use shadow punch!"

Haunter released another spectral punch that slammed against drifloon's unconscious floating body. It then created a shade of itself and launched that at the balloon pokémon, who once more took the hit before falling forward in haunter's direction towards the ground. As it did, it exploded, which seemed to hurt haunter, much to his and Lauren's surprise.

"Drifloon is unable to battle, haunter wins! The victory goes to Lauren!" The judge declared.

Fantina returned drifloon. "Well done, my darling. You and your teammates deserve a long rest," She then turned to Lauren and Niko, who was leaving the stands and approaching the two women in the middle of the battlefield. "You two battling quite nicely. Although, if I may have a suggestion—trying battling with music. It tends to help your pokémon's rhythm, and their attacks attack with more accuracy. At least, that's my eexperience."

"We'll keep that in mind. Thank you, Fantina," Niko said as the gym leader pulled out two small purple and silver badges from a pocket in her dress. The badge consisted of four circles—with the largest circle in the middle and three smaller circles weaving in and out of the larger one.

"Here, I present to you two the Relic Badge, as proof that you beat me in battle. Best of luck in your travels. If you continue to learn and grow with your pokémon, and with your friends, you will see a significant improvement in your abilities as trainers," She said with a wink, which made Niko and Lauren look away in opposing directions.

The group left the gym and walked to the sushi restaurant they visited on the day of the Pokémon Contest roughly five days prior, as a celebration for Niko and Lauren's third gym badge victory. However, once again neither Niko or Lauren spoke directly to one another. This time, however, Brittany began to notice.


	19. Queen of the tower

**Episode 19: Queen of the tower**

"Oh, c'mon you two. I thought you were over this!" Niko shouted as shinx began to growl at turtwig. The tiny leaf pokémon reacted by lurching forward and biting shinx's tail, eliciting a loud screech from the electric type. In retaliation, shinx released sparks from its fur, shocking turtwig and causing it to trot off in the opposite direction, hurt in more than one way. "I swear…these two need to calm down," Niko said, sitting down next to JJ on his sleeping bag. The breeder was playing with his Pokétch again with togepi sitting in his lap. Brittany and Lauren were off at the nearby stream training.

Before they left Hearthome, the group discovered that their next destination would be Solaceon Town. That's where the next contest was and, to JJ's delight, the regional daycare. According to their map and JJ's Pokétch, it would take a few days to make it to Solaceon Town. After that, they would continue northeast to Veilstone City, one of the major hubs in Sinnoh, for Niko and Lauren's fourth gym battle.

"No idea why they're fighting. But at least they're being active."

"That's true," Niko said, thinking of numel, who was one of the least active pokémon Niko has ever owned. He watched as piplup was practicing his water pulse and staravia was perched in a tree overlooking their camp. Turtwig and shinx, on the other hand, were separated on opposite ends of the camp, refusing to look at one another. _I'm not even sure why they're fighting, either, so it's not like I can help much other than let them deal with it on their own_.

* * *

"So," Brittany said as she was practicing with combee and combusken in preparation for their next contest. "I've noticed something about you lately."

Lauren's eyes widened even as she refused to directly look at Brittany. Like her friend, she was focusing on the next contest, having monferno practice its mach punch and fire swipes moves. "And…what's that?"

"You seem on edge."

"Do I?" Lauren said in mock surprise. Of course she knew why—but did Brittany?

"Yeah, you do. Ever since the Tag Team Competition ended. Is it something with Niko?"

"What!? No…why would it be? We're just friends o-or rivals, that's all!"

Brittany raised an eyebrow. It then became clear to the both of them that she knew about Lauren, but not enough specifics to piece it all together. "You're something, Lauren. You know that?" When Lauren looked back with bemusement, she elaborated. "I know there's something you'd rather not tell me. Maybe it's about Niko, maybe not. But I've also noticed he is a little different, too, but only around you. Is there a reason why?"

"Why would I care about what Niko is thinking, or how he's acting?"

"Because you care about him."

Lauren stood frozen, staring at Brittany with genuine shock. _She's good._ Lauren thought. She sighed deeply, and then spoke in a soft, but nervous voice. "Maybe…"

"That's all there is to it?" Brittany asked, a half-smile coloring her face. "Well, I think that's cute. You two work out really well together, if the Tag Battle Competition is any indication."

"You think so?"

"Lauren…" Brittany said, raising an eyebrow teasingly. "I've travelled with Niko for three freaking years now. I _know_ him. I've…" She paused, unsure if she should say what she wanted to say. "I've cared about him too, in the same way. I don't, please don't think I do. But, if he reacted in an odd way, I wouldn't think too much of it. These are emotions he is trying to understand. Romantic feelings towards other, I mean. I won't say anything more, but what I would suggest is maybe give it time. If he reciprocates those feelings as well, then you'll know. If he doesn't, then he won't necessarily hold it against you, because he understands rejection, too. He's a good friend in that regard."

Lauren sat on the grass, looking at her reflection in the sunset-colored water. "Thanks, Brittany…yeah, it's a lot to take in. A lot of feelings. I guess…I know how he felt after the finals in the competition. They're different feelings, but I understand the confusion. He's just so…hard to read sometimes."

"Yet he's predictable, I know," Brittany said, sitting down next to her. Combee sat in between them, with monferno and combusken sitting on the other side of their respective trainers. "We've all got those weird paradoxes about ourselves. I don't know you that well, but I'm sure you do, too."

"Do you?" Lauren asked, hugging her bent knees with her outstretched arms.

Brittany thought about it for a while before answering coherently. "Well…I guess I understand other people's emotions better than my own. Like, for example, I completely understand this whole thing you're going through with Niko, yet I myself couldn't understand my own feelings for him. Or, to give you a small example, I didn't understand why I felt so distraught after the Hearthome Contest last week. Things like that."

"Ah," Lauren said, allowing the information to soak in as she looked across the relatively thin stream of water and towards the south.

* * *

The next morning, the group got back up and continued on their journey. As they were walking along the edge of a forest, on a trail that led through another valley, Niko decided to let staravia out of its pokéball to fly around. Brittany did the same, summoning combee out to fly about the area. The bee and starling pokémon, who prior to this had hardly any interaction with one another, became fast friends, flying around in the valley and occasionally challenging each other to races, in which staravia would usually win, but also allow combee to win, too.

"Look at those two," JJ observed as they sat down for lunch. "It's really cool to see combee enjoying the travelling so much."

"Yeah," Brittany said, also observing her pokémon. "I wasn't sure how it would react to so many companions, but it's actually a really social pokémon. It enjoys the company of others more than I thought it would."

"Well, it is a bee," Niko added. "Aren't bees social creatures naturally?"

"Sort of. I think…" Brittany said, unsure. "Either way, I'm glad it has a friend to fly around with."

"Staravia's enjoying it a lot, too. That's the worry I had with it when I first caught it. It was so spontaneous, I wasn't sure how it would do with not just my other pokémon, but with me as well. Usually the pokémon we've all caught have interacted with us for more than a minute. At least, that's what I've noticed."

Lauren nodded, acknowledging Niko for one of the first times since they were in Hearthome City. "Roselia and I met more spontaneously than anything. I was on my way to Sandgem Town to get chimchar—my 'starter' pokémon—and haunter and I just came upon her in the forest. She looked cute, and wanted to challenge haunter to a battle. So, well, we agreed. Haunter kicked her ass, as you can imagine, but I decided on the spot to capture her. And, well, it worked out pretty well for us, I think."

"That's cool," Niko said, smiling at Lauren, who didn't look in return. "Shinx and I kind of met like that, too. On our way to Jubilife it stole some of turtwig's food, and we chased it down and ultimately caught it," He looked at Brittany and JJ, "It's also how I caught abra and pidgey, I think. Oh, and taillow. Right?"

"Something like that," JJ responded. "That was so long ago, though."

"Heh, yeah. I wonder how they're doing back at home. Which reminds me, I'm going to call home when we get to Solaceon Town, if you two are interested in joining."

JJ and Brittany both nodded in agreement. For a while the four of them just sat there, watching their pokémon run around on route 209. It had been a while since they allowed their pokémon to run around and play with each other. Monferno and combusken kept challenging each other to strength and speed tests, usually with combusken—who was far more experienced—winning. Haunter would play hide-and-seek with growlithe, shroomish, azumarill, tangela, pikachu, and spheal. Turtwig and roselia would hang out, usually sitting by bushes or nearby flower beds and napping. Wartortle and piplup kept training, generally by a nearby stream. Lastly, shinx slept on his own, hardly interacting with the others. The flash pokémon, however, did take an interest in togepi, however, and JJ found the electric type cozying up to him a lot more than usual.

* * *

After another few hours of walking north towards Solaceon Town, the group ended the travelling early in lieu of more training, as Brittany and Lauren requested. They stopped in the middle of an ordinary field, the only thing remotely different being a stone tower nearby. Combee, having flown for much of the day, was itching to train with its trainer, intentionally urging staravia to a battle.

Niko looked up bemusedly at the bee pokémon, and then at Brittany, who shared his expression.

She shrugged. "Well, if she wants to fight, we can fight. You in, Niko?" Combee buzzed happily.

"Sure, why not? Want to, staravia?"

The starling pokémon nodded its agreement, and the two walked over towards the stone tower, which looked more destroyed than it originally seemed, and began their battle.

"Combee, use bug bite!" Brittany commanded.

"Staravia, quick attack into double team!" Niko shouted. The starling pokémon burst forward. Once he got within striking range of combee, he duplicated itself, distracting the bee pokémon while he swerved back around and slammed into the bug type's back, knocking her forward towards Niko.

"Combee, use sweet scent!" Brittany shouted. The tiny bee pokémon emitted a pleasant aroma from its body. "Now, use gust!"

The scent carried across the field towards staravia, who seemed oddly enchanted by her. The starling pokémon slowly flew towards the origin of the scent—which was combee. As he got closer, Brittany commanded for combee to use gust. The bee pokémon fluttered her wings aggressively, creating a strong enough wind to carry staravia to her right, in the direction of the stone tower.

Staravia crashed into the tower, whose top was hollowed out. Staravia shook his head, looking around at his surroundings. He quickly noticed a small cylindrical stone with a blue vein running through it. Curious, staravia touched the stone. It began to vibrate rapidly. The sky around them darkened, and some otherworldly force emitted a wave of energy that launched staravia back out of the tower and onto the field.

"What happened?" Niko asked, leaning down towards staravia and looking over at the tower. Lauren and JJ, who had been watching the battle, ran over to join Niko, Brittany, and either pokémon as they watched something emerge from the broken tower.

Connected to the stone that staravia touched rose a swirling purple fog with green circles swirling on the outer edge of the fog. In the middle at a green face with two swirling eyes and a jagged mouth. Overall, it was a terrifying-looking pokémon.

"What the hell…?" Niko said, pulling out his pokédex:

" _Spiritomb, the forbidden pokémon. Ghost and dark type. Its constant mischief and misdeeds resulted in it being bound to an Odd Keystone by a mysterious spell_."

"Staravia…what did you _do_?" Niko asked, looking in awe at the starling pokémon, who shied away from his trainer, apparently in shame. "I'm not mad, though. But…I think this thing is!"

Spiritomb launched forward at the group, dark beams of energy shooting out from it. Niko and Staravia leapt to the right; Brittany and combee to the left; and Lauren and JJ backwards in avoidance of the attack. In response, Lauren summoned haunter and JJ sent out shroomish.

"Haunter, night shade!"

"Shroomish, stun spore!"

"Staravia, wing attack!"

"Combee, gust!"

All four attacks collided with spiritomb, who blew them away with an attack that looked like ominous wind. Only staravia and combee managed to survive the attack that knocking shroomish, haunter, and the four trainers to the ground. On his own command, staravia lurched forward to use wing attack. He hit spiritomb's keystone, flipping the pokémon around in a full circle before combee rushed forward and used bug bite on it, all three faces on the bee's body grabbing onto the spiritual fog that surrounded the ghost pokémon.

Eventually shroomish and haunter got back into the battle, launching a shadow punch and mega drain at the forbidden pokémon, who once more used ominous wind. This time, it knocked down combee as well, causing the bee pokémon to crash into the field below.

"Combee!" Brittany said. "Are you alright?"

Just as she asked the question, spiritomb launched another beam of black energy at staravia, Niko, and Brittany, knocking the bird out of the sky. The attack also hit the ground right in front of Brittany, sending her rolling backwards.

Combee rushed over to her trainer before looking up at spiritomb. Angry, she rushed forward, her wings fluttered at an aggressive pace, before she began to glow a white color, illuminating the dark field around her.

"Huh…?" Brittany said, looking up towards the sky, having to cover her eyes from the brightness of the evolution.

Combee's body jutted downwards, creating an orange and black striped honeycomb in the shape of a dress that became its abdomen. Its upper half was more insect-like, with two skinny black arms that bore two orange claws on each; two pairs of transparent wings on its back; a yellow upper body in the shape of a sphere that sat on top of a slim waist that connected it to the abdomen. It's face had a pair of ruby-red eyes sitting above yellow, protruding mandibles with a red gem on its forehead.

The new pokémon—vespiquen—rushed at spiritomb, bringing its large abdomen upwards in an arc-like motion and smacking the keystone, sending spiritomb vertically into the air. Vespiquen then flipped over so that the bottom of its abdomen was raised to the sky. A pink light began to glow from it as a flurry of gems shot out from it, hitting spiritomb's keystone and destroying it.

Upon destruction, dozens of individual wails were heard coming from the fragments of the keystones, as if the spirits residing in spiritomb were finally free. Vespiquen then flew back down towards Brittany to see if she was okay.

"Wow!" Brittany said, looking at her new pokémon with surprise. "You saved us and defeated a spiritomb. I'm so proud of you!" She then hugged vespiquen. Staravia flew over and congratulated the queen bee pokémon as well, which she appreciated.

The other three trainers all marveled at vespiquen and its inherent power for a while before having dinner. While they did so, Brittany and Lauren began discussing the Solaceon Town contest, especially now with vespiquen under Brittany's command and tutelage. Meanwhile, Niko looked back over at the stone tower from where spiritomb originated, wondering how in the world it had ended up there, of all places.

Ignoring the thought, he turned to Lauren, who from the light of the campfire looked oddly radiant. Her blue hair glowed in the firelight, making it look like it too was on fire. Smiling, he turned to shinx—who was asleep next to JJ's togepi—and began to pet him, hearing the soft purr emitting from its small body.


	20. Sealing the deal!

**Episode 20: Sealing the deal!**

"Hello? Niko? Niko!"

"Hey, Mom," Niko said earnestly, looking at the screen in front of him displaying the inside of his parent's house. "How are things?"

"Everything is fine here! Your father is out in the backyard right now, tending to the pokémon. They're all doing great, by the way. They miss you, and some of them don't try to hide it. Aggron sits by our back door every day waiting for you to come back."

"Well, tell aggron that I say hi, alright? I know it can't fit inside the house."

"Will do, honey. Now, how _are_ you?"

Niko then recounted some of the events of his journey in Sinnoh. He told his mother about the pokémon that he's caught; about meeting and travelling with Lauren—with the exception of the kiss—and briefly about his gym battles.

"Sounds like you're having a great time, son!" Niko's Dad said as he popped onto the screen next to his wife. "Killing it out there?"

"Doing my best, Dad. How's Jake?"

"Well, he called us a couple of days ago. Said he's visiting Lavender Town right now. He also said he has four badges at this point, but had to re-match against Erika in Celadon City."

"That sounds like him. I'll try to see if I can talk to him sometime soon."

"We'll be sure to relay your progress to him next chance we get. So, Niko…tell us about this Lauren chick. She cute?"

Niko's eyes widened from shock. His cheeks slightly turning red, he shook his head. "Err…no no, no relationships here!"

"That doesn't answer my question," He said with a wink.

"She's fine looking, Dad."

"Just checking. I know you're probably meeting lovely women out in Sinnoh."

Niko ignored the comment, instead looking around behind them. His house had hardly changed much since he left—not a surprise, to be sure. Moments later, yanma came from behind his parents and stared at the screen, buzzing with excitement.

"Hey yanma! How are you?" Yanma buzzed around happily. Suddenly, some of Niko's other pokémon—shellder, hitmonchan, the birds—all swarmed into the room and looked into the screen to see Niko. He greeted each of them in turn. As he did so, he felt the presence of someone behind him. "Oh, hey Lauren. Want to meet some of my pokémon?"

"Oh! Sure!" Lauren said excitedly. Niko then introduced her to yanma, shellder, hitmonchan, pidgeot, noctowl, and swellow. She greeted them all in a pleasant manner before his parents turned back to the screen. "Hi, Niko's parents!"

"Hello Lauren. Pleased to meet you!" Niko's Mom said cheerfully, "Hopefully our son isn't giving you too much trouble."

"He gives me _way_ too much trouble, actually," She said, winking at Niko. "Kidding, he's fine, I guess."

After some more small talk, she got up and left to continue preparing for her contest in a couple of hours.

"Alright, I actually have to head off, too. Brittany and Lauren are competing in a Pokémon Contest in a few hours. Talk to you soon! Love you!"

"Love you too, son," Dad said before hanging up. Once the call ended, Niko released a massive sigh into the air before standing up from the chair in the Call Center and walking back into the lobby.

He found Brittany, JJ, and Lauren all feeding their pokémon. JJ was reading through his poffin book again, looking up new recipes. After the contest, the group all agreed to head to the Pokémon Daycare the following morning before leaving for Veilstone City, so JJ could visit the owners and talk to them about pokémon breeding. Niko slouched back on the couch as he watched the three of them, thinking about his pokémon back at home, hoping that he'd get to see them soon enough.

Niko hardly ever talked about it, but every time he leaves he sorely misses his other pokémon. Ones that he spent time raising and training; ones that he builds strong, lasting relationships with. It's also why he enjoyed the summers so much—it gave him a reason to continue cultivating those friendships without the stress of a Pokémon League. It also made him wonder if his current pokémon would enjoy the company of his other ones. This time, he was absolutely sure of it, and relished in the idea of uniting all of them again.

Before he got any further in his thoughts, Brittany and Lauren stood up and left for the contest, leaving Niko and JJ alone.

"How's the family?" JJ asked while he fed togepi. When Niko recounted their conversation, a half-smile grew on JJ's face. "It's nice that you got to see some of your pokémon. I miss beedrill and bayleef, too. Oh, and Maizie, of course."

"What's happened with that?" Niko asked, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, with you two."

"Oh, we're together. But it's more relaxed, I guess. We both understand that for our individual goals to be met, right now we have to be apart from each other. But I do miss her, and can't wait to get back to Johto," JJ was silent for a minute before speaking again. "So…Brittany's noticed this, too, but did something happen between you and Lauren?"

Niko immediately sat up and backed further up the couch. "No…? Why would anything happen?"

"Because of how you reacted. Niko…I know you. Brittany knows you. Something's up. Do you want to talk about it?"

Niko went quiet, looking down at his brown hiking shoes that looked too big for him. It also made him think that maybe he should invest in other shoes. Realizing that he couldn't ignore JJ, he looked up. "She…admitted she cares about me. I don't know what she meant by it until she, uh, kissed me."

JJ's eyes widened. "Wow. That…was quick."

"What do you mean?" Niko asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Okay, so Brittany and I both thought you and Lauren would end up liking each other, just based on how you were constantly arguing. But I certainly didn't think either of you would make a move so quickly. You get what I'm saying?" Niko nodded. "Right. Anyways, how does it make you feel?"

"JJ…I don't know. I'll tell you this—I definitely didn't like her before that. This is new for me."

"Is it? Or are you just telling yourself that?" When Niko looked bemused, JJ elaborated. "Melinda."

Niko shook his head once again. "This isn't about her. It isn't about Brittany, or anyone else! I am confused about Lauren, and I feel pressured to say something, but I don't want to. I'm afraid that I'll say the wrong thing and upset her like I did with Brittany. I'd just rather not think about it, or talk about it."

"I get that. We need to get to the contest anyways," JJ said, returning his pokémon and standing up to leave with Niko.

* * *

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Solaceon Town Pokémon Contest! I'm your host, Marian, and we've got quite the show for you today! We have coordinators from all over Sinnoh and beyond competing with style and grace befitting a coordinator. For those unfamiliar, let me go through the different stages of a contest:

"The first round is the Performance Round. Each coordinator dresses up and enters a pokémon to perform. Coordinators may use as many moves as they would like within the three-minute time limit. In the second round—the Battle Round—coordinators will face off against one another using the same pokémon from before, or a different one if they so choose to. The winner of the Battle Round will be granted the Contest Ribbon. Now, without further ado, join me in welcoming our first coordinator from…"

As usual, Brittany and Lauren drowned out Marian's voice. Unlike the Hearthome Contest, this one would be single performances and battles, so neither coordinator had much to worry about. However, there was one difference that they noticed in this contest—every coordinator was using some sort of custom pokéball. Curious, Lauren turned to the young man sitting next to her to inquire.

"Oh, honey, those are pokéball seals," When Lauren still looked confused, he continued. "They're stickers that can be attached to pokéballs to create effects when your pokémon is sent out. They come in different shapes and sizes—hearts, stars, different elements, etc. You have to make sure to put a ball capsule on first, though, otherwise you won't get the effect. Here, let me show you."

He pulled out a dark blue pokéball with a massive star on the front, right above the center button. Then, he slipped off a transparent blue coating to reveal an ordinary red and white pokéball underneath, calling the blue coat the "ball capsule."

"Where can we get these?" Lauren asked.

"Oh, any ordinary shop. I think this contest hall also sells them, but they might be more expensive," He said with a frown.

"Well, thanks!" Lauren said with a cheerful smile.

"No problem! Best of luck," He said, shaking Lauren's hand. "Actually, wait…I may have seen you before. Did you win the Jubilife Contest?" When Lauren nodded, he smiled. "I was there, too! I don't believe we battled, but I definitely remember you and your super-impressive haunter. My name's Mikey. And you?"

"Lauren. And this is Brittany."

Mikey wore a white dress shirt with a light orange vest covering it. His hair was a light orange color, although Lauren and Brittany could tell it wasn't his natural hair color, as it was far more solid and pure-looking. It seemed to suit him in an odd way, as it seemed to match nicely with his blue eyes that were lighter than Niko's. To complete his look, he had on red-orange form-fitting pants.

The three exchanged pleasantries until it was Mikey's turn. Of the 8 participants, he was the fifth to go. Brittany and Lauren would follow him.

The two women watched as he summoned his pokémon—rapidash. They watched as the horse pokémon leapt into the air gracefully, fire trailing behind it. Rapidash then released a fire blast directed at the ground. As it descended, it fired off a fire spin to create a tornado underneath it to ease its fall. Once it landed, it spat another fire blast through the air that exploded into thousands of small specks of fire that soon enough dissolved in midair. The crowd applauded as Mikey and rapidash left the stage for the backroom.

Brittany was next, sending out wartortle. The turtle pokémon conjured a water pulse above its head before ducking into its shell and launching upwards, carrying the pulse higher and higher until it eventually burst. Then, on Brittany's command, wartortle spun around in the rain that resulted from the water pulse, creating a small whirlpool in the air. Brittany then directed the turtle pokémon to withdraw and conjure water pulse from each of its five holes—its head, two arms, and two legs—while it descended. It then used rapid spin once more to spin the water pulses around its body, causing them to burst like water balloons and effectively creating a coat of water around wartortle as it quickly descended to the ground. Wartortle's shell hit the stage, and it flipped through the air. The turtle pokémon popped out from its shell and stood at the front of the stage, arms stretched out. The crowd cheered as much as they did for Mikey, if not louder, when Brittany and her pokémon exited the stage.

Lauren was the last of the three. Summoning haunter, she used a similar performance to her one in Jubilife. The gas pokémon conjured several confuse rays—small, yellow orbs that spun around the target—and sent them flying randomly around the stage. Then, on Lauren's command, haunter used shadow punch, hitting each one with perfect accuracy, causing the confuse rays to explode into small specks of glowing yellow dust. Once again, the crowd cheered for her and haunter, which fed the ghost type's ego a bit.

Once the final coordinator finished performing, all eight of them sat in the backroom eagerly awaiting the results. Brittany, Lauren, and Mikey all made it into the final four that moved on to the Battle Round. However, Brittany and Lauren would be facing off first, while Mikey took on the other semifinalist.

"Well, best coordinator wins, right?" Lauren said, looking over at Brittany and shaking her hand. Brittany returned the handshake with a smirk.

"You're right. Best of luck," She said as they both walked onto the stage together. As Marian began to explain the rules, both women chose their pokémon. The choice for them wasn't that difficult, since they both knew each other's teams inside and out.

"Monferno, you're up!" Lauren commanded.

"Pikachu, let's go!" Brittany shouted. "Use volt tackle!"

"Repel pikachu with mach punch and ember!" Lauren shouted. The playful pokémon rushed forward with incredible speed, although it was overwhelmed by pikachu, as the electric mouse pokémon slammed into monferno, hitting it square in the chest. Both pokémon shot backwards, but monferno managed to gain the upper hand by firing off embers from its mouth, hitting pikachu in the face and knocking it backwards.

"Pikachu, circle around with volt tackle, and use the electricity to fire at monferno!" Brittany directed. Pikachu—now exhausted from its first volt tackle—ran around in a circle in front of its opponent, lowering Lauren's bar a bit.

The blue-haired coordinator took a deep breath, sliding her hands down her hips until they rested parallel to her body. Right as pikachu began to slow down and contain the electricity within its tail, she commanded her response. "Monferno, mach punch at the electricity!"

Surprised—and slightly doubtful—monferno nodded, its fist glowing white as it rushed forward and _punched_ the electricity. The force of the mach punch sent the focused electricity launched from pikachu's tail back at its creator. The electric mouse, not anticipating this, was hit in the face by the electricity, knocking it backwards.

"Now, fire swipes!" Lauren said, making her hands into the shapes of claws and pretending to lurch forward. Monferno charged at pikachu, its hands on fire as it slashed at the mouse. Lauren watched as Brittany's bar began to decrease. She watched as pikachu landed a thundershock on monferno. "Finish it off with another mach punch!"

Monferno's fist began to glow one last time before it slammed it into pikachu, ending the battle.

"Pikachu is unable to battle, monferno wins! Lauren will be moving on to the final round!" Marian declared.

Brittany looked up at Lauren before crouching down to pick up an exhausted pikachu. She smiled—remembering her conversation with her friend a few days prior about paradoxical feelings and choosing not to let this loss get to her. They both exited the stage, exchanging pleasantries before the brunette left to join their friends in the stands while Lauren watched Mikey's battle.

The orange-haired trainer and his rapidash were impressive. They worked almost in sync with one another, as if they were one entity altogether. Ultimately, Mikey won the match against a young girl and her meditite. Meaning it was now Lauren's turn to face her new friend.

She joined Mikey and his rapidash on the main stage as Marian once again announced the competitors—"Lauren from Canalave City versus Mikey from Sunyshore City!" Once she was finished, Lauren summoned her haunter.

"Rapidash, bounce!" Mikey commanded.

"Haunter, wait for it…" Lauren said, hoping to time her strategy perfectly. As the fire horse descended for haunter, she directed her command. "Night shade!"

The gas pokémon began to vibrate, emitting a shade of itself upwards at rapidash. The ghostly image crashed into the fire type, disrupting its attack and causing it to slam onto the stage, in shock from the fall. Lauren then directed haunter to use confuse ray, only to have the yellow orbs get launched off by shadow punch, like they were during her performance. The gas pokémon obliged, knocking a few of the orbs at rapidash, who was struggling to get back up from its fall. The horse, suddenly, appeared confused as to where it was. It looked around on the stage and trotted around, trying to understand its environment while Mikey kept shouting commands for it. Lauren grinned when she saw his bar decrease a bit.

"Haunter, use shadow punch again!" She said, balling her right hand into a fist and thrusting it forward. Haunter did the same, sending a spectral fist at rapidash's right side, knocking the horse over again. "Now, night shade!" She directed, stretching her arms out wide in each direction. Haunter did the same, conjuring a shade and launching it at the injured rapidash, who was still too confused to do anything. Rapidash, recovering from its confusion, launched a fire spin that hit haunter squarely, causing a fiery tornado to erupt close around it. Haunter and Lauren attempted to ignore this by using night shade to blow away enough of the fire to get a clear line of sight on their opponent. "Now, shadow punch one last time!" Lauren said, thrusting her fist further outward. Haunter did the same, launching one final spectral punch at rapidash, knocking it backwards and defeating it.

"Rapidash is unable to battle, haunter wins! The victory—and the contest—go to Lauren from Canalave City!"

Lauren sighed with relief as haunter rushed towards her and attempted to hug her, a chill creeping around her body. She looked over to see Mikey approaching her. He congratulated her on her match and hoped to see her again sometime. Giving their farewells, Lauren turned back to see Marian holding out a light purple contest ribbon.

"Congrats, Lauren, on winning the Solaceon Town Pokémon Contest!" She said excitedly. Lauren took the ribbon and showed it to haunter, who smiled eagerly.

Lauren joined Niko, JJ, and Brittany in the lobby once the contest was over. All three of them congratulated her on her win—even Niko, who simply said "Good job," which was enough to make her smile softly, looking away from him towards Brittany, with whom she talked about the seals that Mikey mentioned, hoping to get some before their next contest, whenever that would be. Before heading back to the Pokémon Center for dinner, the group went to locate the daycare so that they wouldn't have to spend time the following morning looking for it. Then, they retired for the day to the Pokémon Center before continuing on their journey.


	21. The strongest bunny

**Episode 21: The strongest bunny**

Niko looked over the fence, observing the baby pokémon running around in the fields behind the daycare. He had spent much of the morning observing the small creatures as they interacted with one another, building and cultivating important social skills. He found it cathartic; a nice way to relax and take his mind off of the world around him.

He and his friends had chosen to visit the Pokémon Daycare in Solaceon Town for JJ. The curly blonde pokémon breeder was interested in learning more about the art of raising pokémon, and on the rare occasion that they passed by a regionally-renowned daycare, he couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn everything that he possibly could.

While JJ was sitting inside talking with the owners, Brittany and Lauren were in the fields helping one of the old couple that tended to the daycare. Niko chose to sit back and watch from afar. It wasn't that he wasn't interested in helping. No, he didn't like admitting it, but he wanted to have some quiet, alone time. And that's exactly what he got.

Eventually, the girls returned to the daycare, waving to Niko as they walked back into the building. Minutes later, all three of Niko's friends exited the daycare, saying farewell to the old couple that ran the place.

"Learn anything new?" Niko asked JJ as he pushed his arms off of the fence to stand up straight again.

"Well, kind of. I learned more about the business of running a daycare, not as much about the actual breeding part. But they did refer me to some people who study breeding, so when we get to Veilstone City I want to spend some time looking up books that people have written about it, if that's alright."

"Of course. Remember, we're only there to get the gym badge. That's it, really," Niko said as the four of them ventured northwards towards route 210. They only needed to take that route until they got to some sort of T-intersection, during which they would begin travelling east towards Veilstone City. Overall, the entire trip would take a little under a week.

"Oh! They also helped me install the daycare app on my Pokétch. I don't know what I'll do with it, but it still looks cool, here," JJ said, shoving his left wrist up to Niko's face, revealing the small screen in the middle of the watch. The screen displayed a little field with some clouds in the background. "So, if you leave any pokémon there, this app will update to show them. It's neat, isn't it?"

Niko nodded, and slowly began questioning his friend about the technology. It seemed to him that JJ hardly knew the mechanics of the app, but he was nonetheless interested in it. They talked about it—and other things JJ learned about the business of running a Pokémon Daycare—for much of the day, at least until the four of them stopped at the end of the day near a relatively steep hill on the grassy plains of route 210.

During the evening, Niko and Lauren spent some time training. Niko was trying to get piplup to learn bubblebeam, but otherwise the rest of his team spent much of the day resting and playing around. The penguin pokémon was the only one interested in training, anyways, which seemed to impress Niko. Meanwhile, Lauren was working with monferno, trying to teach her flame wheel. For this she had the help of JJ and his growlithe, who already knew the move. Roselia was also trying to learn magical leaf with limited success.

All the while, Niko and Lauren had hardly spoken to each other. After the conversations that they had with JJ and Brittany, respectively, neither of them had even considered trying to approach the other, primarily out of fear of rejection from the other. Lauren in particular was afraid of rejection, given what she knew from Brittany. Niko, on the other hand, was simply confused. He didn't exactly _know_ how he felt, and that was the source of his fear.

The two coexisted nonetheless, even if they didn't directly speak to one another, or avidly avoided any one-on-one encounters, leaving Brittany and JJ to be with one of them constantly.

* * *

The following morning, Lauren woke up early to continue training with monferno. The woman and pokémon walked up to the top of the hill to watch the sun rise before beginning their training.

"Alright monferno, just like we practiced yesterday! Let's start by covering your body in fire!" She directed. Monferno attempted it, but couldn't quite get it right. Sensing disappointment in the playful pokémon's expression, Lauren walked over to it and sat down on the grassy hill next to it. "You're afraid, aren't you?"

Monferno looked over and nodded. Lauren laughed softly before looking out onto the plains beyond their small campsite. Route 210 was different in that the grass was far taller, making the field harder to walk through. This is in part why Lauren wanted to train specifically on the hill—she wouldn't risk starting a fire in the tall grass.

"I understand being afraid," She finally said. "I'm afraid, too," When monferno looked over at her in confusion, she continued. "Well, I, uh, like someone, but I am afraid to bring it up again, mainly because I don't to feel rejected."

Monferno nodded. However, before she could act on Lauren's predicament—as well as her own—she noticed something rustling around in the grass beneath them. Perking up, the fire monkey ran down the hill, bounding for the source of the movement. Bemused, Lauren also stood up and followed in pursuit of her pokémon.

They rushed through the tall grass, ignoring the small pokémon that they passed by. Eventually they came to a small clearing where they saw a small rabbit pokémon in some sort of battle against a kricketune. Pulling out her pokédex, Lauren took a look at the small, brown and beige rabbit with fluffy-looking ears:

" _Buneary, the rabbit pokémon. Normal type. Its ears are always rolled up. They can be forcefully extended to shatter even a large boulder_."

The buneary then leapt into action, charging forward at the cricket pokémon with a move that looked like quick attack. Slamming into the kricketune, it managed to knock the bug type over before getting slapped by a fury cutter from its opponent, knocking buneary backwards. The rabbit shook the attack off, choosing to rush back in at its opponent, this time bounding through the air at the kricketune, its foot glowing a bright white color. It crashed on the top of kricketune's head, knocking the pokémon downwards. Buneary then tried to finish the bug type off with what looked to Lauren like thunderpunch. The rabbit's small fist began to light up with sparks of electricity. However, as soon as it was about to hit kricketune, the electricity disappeared, surprising buneary and giving kricketune the opening it needed to retaliate with fury cutter.

Buneary was launched through the clearing and into the tall grass, collapsing onto the large leaf blades. Kricketune then began to walk away when the buneary got back up and rushed back at it with quick attack. The kricketune, noticing this, turned around and slapped the rabbit's left side, launching it in Lauren and monferno's direction before leaving again through the tall grass.

Lauren looked down at the rabbit laying in front of it. Concerned, she crouched down to get a better look at it. There were small welts on its arms and torso, suggesting that this wasn't its first battle of the day. Looking at monferno, who nodded back as if understanding what Lauren wanted to do, the blue-haired woman picked buneary up and carried it back to their campsite on the other side of the hill. There, Brittany, JJ, and Niko were all eating breakfast.

"There you—oh no, what happened?" JJ asked, getting up to see Lauren carrying the buneary.

"This buneary was injured in a fight against a kricketune. I figured maybe we could help heal it up before we leave," She said, placing the rabbit pokémon on her sleeping bag. The other nodded while their pokémon crowded around the unfamiliar pokémon. Soon enough, JJ and Brittany, with the help of their pokémon, managed to heal the buneary a bit while it was resting.

Half an hour later, buneary woke up, confused as to where it was. Upon recognizing Lauren and monferno, it frowned, as if it didn't appreciate the help that it received.

"Good morning. Feeling better?" Lauren said with a smile. "Monferno and I saw you fight that kricketune. You were very impressive and strong."

Upon hearing the compliment, buneary shook its head and sat back down.

"Well, you might be disappointed, but I enjoyed the battle. You just need to work on that thunderpunch, and you'll win next time," Lauren then stood up from her sleeping bag. "Say, would you like to train with monferno and I today? She's trying to learn a move, too, and we could definitely use a battling partner. What do you say?"

Buneary looked reluctant at first, but ultimately obliged, standing up and walking with Lauren and monferno up to the top of the hill to train. There, they practiced by exchanging moves with one another. Occasionally, JJ or Brittany would join them, the former in particular, whose growlithe helped monferno perfect the move.

Buneary proved to be a very capable battler, giving monferno a legitimate challenge. The two ended up nearly exhausting each other, but it seemed like they were getting better with their respective moves.

"Alright monferno, one last attempt and we're breaking for lunch, got it?" The playful pokémon nodded, leaping forward to create its flame wheel, successfully creating a circle of flames around its body. As it moved, the flames rotated around it, giving it the impression of an actual wheel. Buneary dove out of the way before spinning around and charging at its opponent with quick attack. Once it was upon monferno, the rabbit pokémon lifted its right fist into the air, sparks emitting from it, as it slammed it down onto monferno's face, causing the playful pokémon to crash onto its back on the ground.

Lauren and JJ both looked in awe at the buneary, who stood over monferno, victorious. That's when Lauren got an idea—why not catch the buneary? As she began to ponder it, the rabbit began to head down the hill in the same direction Lauren and monferno had travelled earlier that morning, clearly in search of kricketune.

Motioning to JJ, growlithe, and monferno, Lauren followed buneary down the hill and into the tall grass, making their way to the clearing from before. There, against a rather large rock, sat the same kricketune from before, playing a melody on its blade arms. It looked up, watching buneary approach it. The cricket pokémon ended its tune, stretching its arms to the sides in preparation for battle.

Without any hesitation, buneary bounded forward, beginning with a jump kick attack that landed successfully on its opponent. However, it left the rabbit vulnerable to a fury cutter, which kricketune managed to land successfully as well. Buneary landed on its back, kicking at kricketune as it swiped down at it. Eventually, buneary found an opening in kricketune's onslaught and spun around, quickly getting back on its two feet before charging forward with quick attack. This time, kricketune managed to evade, using fury cutter to slap the rabbit out of the way, causing buneary to roll across the dirt in the clearing. It showed clear signs of exhaustion, but didn't seem to give up.

"C'mon buneary! You can do it!" Lauren said, echoed by JJ and their pokémon. Hearing this, buneary stood in its tracks, trying to get kricketune to rush at it. The cricket pokémon took the bait, crossing its arms in preparation to use what seemed to be X-scissor. When it got close enough, buneary side-stepped the bug type, its fist glowing with electric sparks. It then moved around kricketune, landing a thunderpunch into the cricket's back, causing it to crash on its face.

Buneary stood over kricketune, just as it had with monferno before it. The cricket pokémon rolled around to look at its opponent. Realizing that it lost the match, the cricket stood back up and patted buneary on the shoulder with one of its blade-arms. It then turned and left into the tall grass.

Lauren, JJ, and their pokémon cheered and clapped for the buneary, who finally turned to recognize them. It solemnly nodded with a half-smile on its face. Before turning around to leave, Lauren called out its name.

"Buneary!" She shouted. Once she got the rabbit's attention, she continued. "Do you want to come with us on our journey? That way, you can continue to get stronger, and fight pokémon that will make you the best rabbit out there."

Once more, the rabbit pokémon stood there, presumably considering its options. Eventually, it acquiesced before nodding in confirmation. Lauren then looked down at monferno, who also agreed with a nod. Having the approval of both pokémon, she pulled out a spare pokéball from her bag and tossed it over to buneary, who clicked open the empty pokéball with its ear. The rabbit immediately went into the pokéball with a flash of red light. The ball quivered a few times before clicking, signaling that the pokémon was caught.

Elated, Lauren ran over and picked up the ball, summoning back buneary. "Welcome to the team," She said, crouching down and holding out her paw. Buneary touched the hand, and Lauren responded by covering her hand in the paw and lightly shaking it. The five of them—two trainers and three pokémon—journeyed back to the camp to show Niko and Brittany the new catch.

"Congrats, Lauren. It'll be a nice addition to your team," Niko said with a smile. Lauren hardly looked at him as she communicated her thanks. After packing up, the four continued northeast to their next destination, this time with a new and energetic addition to their burgeoning family of trainers and pokémon.


	22. In the rain

**Episode 22: In the rain**

Niko pulled the hood over his head as rain began to collide against the top of his head. Normally, he enjoyed the rain—it rarely rained back in Pallet Town growing up—but walking through it was another matter altogether. He didn't like the feeling of being soaking wet, and so when he and his friends had to traverse route 215 through the rain, in his mind he would rather have waited it out. However, the other three had little problem with it, at least compared to him, but he obliged all the same and trudged on.

"What's the matter, Niko?" Lauren said teasingly from under her purple and blue hood, which was hardy useful in coating her from the rain. "Afraid of a little water?"

Niko scoffed at her. "Not even. I just don't like the feeling of being wet. That's not the same thing as being afraid."

Lauren stuck her tongue out at Niko before turning back to Brittany and talking with her. Meanwhile, JJ was busy trying to cover up togepi while walking. Growing frustrated with his inability to properly shield the egg pokémon from the rain, he returned the baby to her pokéball instead before digging his hands into the pockets of his jacket and continuing on.

They were a couple of days away from Veilstone City as this point. The previous days were spent training their pokémon in preparation for the next gym battle, which Niko and Lauren learned was against Maylene and her fighting types. With this knowledge, Niko figured that staravia would be his best shot at winning. Lauren, on the other hand, had a feeling she could rely on monferno the most this time, and maybe even buneary who, while weak to fighting types, was an agile pokémon who could certainly hold its own despite the disadvantage.

It was also during this time that Niko began to consider teaching staravia aerial ace, in much the same way swellow began to learn it, too. He liked the move a lot, and it produced a fair number of wins for him, so it made sense. The starling pokémon seemed to understand the move, and was going at the speed that swellow would usually have to attain in order for the move to be successful. Staravia's only problem, however, was that it kept missing, which was the exact opposite of what aerial ace was supposed to do.

The four trainers eventually took a break from walking in the mid-afternoon, choosing to sit under a bridge that connected to rather large hills. The bridge, while having several crevices and holes running through it, was still somehow drier than under a tree.

Niko placed down his bag at the base of the hill and summoned his team for lunch. Lauren, Brittany, and JJ all did the same. Understandably, monferno had the hardest time being outside in the rain, and so she ate her food the fastest and demanded to go back insider her pokéball, which Lauren happily agreed to.

They sat there for a while in relative silence. This would happen occasionally, as they would sometimes run out of topics to talk about. Also, for the most part, they were all introverts by nature (JJ being the exception here), which hardly helped with regards to staring conversations.

Niko took the silence to continue thinking in relative peace. Lately, he had been mulling over how he felt about Lauren. The events in Hearthome kept running through his head, with and without his consent. He also looked back on moments since he met Lauren, and he began to see things in a different light. The flower; the constant teasing; the upset look she sometimes got when he snapped back at her. All of these moments were originally taken as teasing for friendly banter. With the knowledge that she may have admired him more than he knew, Niko felt compelled to re-think everything.

But the question nonetheless remained: how did _he_ feel about _her_?

He found it difficult to even come to a conclusion on this matter, which made him believe that he didn't feel the same way. After all, it's hard to love someone if there is even a flicker of doubt about those feelings in the first place. On the flipside, however, he always got a warm, fuzzy feeling when he thought about that moment in Amity Park after the competition. It was a moment of vulnerability for both of them, to be sure, but he certainly felt something. He also liked it. The warmness of her lips against his was a feeling he wouldn't mind feeling again if given the opportunity.

But if he ever had a doubt of his feelings, he would circle back to his conversations with JJ on the subject of romance. JJ was right—Melinda always seemed to be something that existed in the back of his mind that blocked him from forming any sort of feelings. Niko had been rejected before—from silly, childish infatuations when he was growing up—but Melinda was the first time he had more developed, romantic thoughts running around in his mind. He knew that Lauren admired him, and so if he reciprocated the feelings then he wouldn't have to worry about rejection necessarily. Or would he?

 _What if a relationship between us is incompatible because we're travelling? What if we get into a big argument and she splits off from the group or worse, she_ splits up _the group?_

 _But that's nonsense, Niko. It clearly wasn't a problem when Brittany confessed a year and a half ago, and it certainly wasn't a problem when Lauren did a week ago. So why the doubt? Why is this so difficult for me to understand!?_

"Niko, you alright?" JJ asked as he watched Niko lightly tap the sides of his head with his fist as if he were frustrated with something—which, evidently, he was.

"Oh? Yeah…I'm alright. Sorry," He replied, lowering his hands to rest on his knees. "We ready to move on now?"

JJ nodded, and when he and Brittany began packing up, Niko looked over at his pokémon and noticed shinx chasing turtwig around. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue—it happened all the time—however shinx seemed angrier than normal; more aggressive than normal. He lurched at turtwig, his fangs exposed, and crunched down on the tiny leaf pokémon's back. Turtwig let out a painful cry, and snapped his head as far as he could to the right and used razor leaf, smacking shinx in the side of the face, causing him to unhook his fangs.

Shinx then lowered the front half of his body, ready to pounce, when suddenly Niko jumped in between them, lowering himself to grab onto the feline pokémon. He suddenly felt sharp teeth sink into his right arm.

"OW!" He shouted, attempting to pry shinx off. "SHINX! WHAT THE HELL!?" He snapped angrily. Shinx, having never seen his trainer so angry, let go and walked backwards, lowing his head in shame. Feeling guilty, Niko tried to walk back on his tone. "Shinx…I'm sorry for yelling at you, really."

It wasn't effective, as the flash pokémon turned around and ran off, up the hill on the other end of the bridge and into the forest above.

"Dammit…" Niko muttered as he got up to run off. "I'll be back soon, I promise."

"Wait," Lauren said softly. She grabbed Niko's right arm and pulled the jacket sleeve up to reveal the bite marks. "You need to bandage this up like, right now."

"I can't. I have to go find shinx!"

"Then let me help you. We can fix it when we find shinx, alright?" She said with an earnest smile. Niko hesitated before nodding. He then looked to JJ and Brittany, who both nodded solemnly.

"Let us know if you need anything, alright?" JJ said, tossing Niko staravia's pokéball, which was lying near his bag. Niko returned the flying type and nodded before running off in the direction shinx ran, Lauren trailing closely behind. Sighing, JJ looked over at Brittany. It seemed that they were thinking the same thing. "Lauren talk with you?"

"Yeah. Niko talked with you?"

JJ nodded. "Think that there's something actually there?"

Brittany quietly laughed. "Of course there is. There always has been, I think. Lauren didn't realize it until we reached Floaroma Town, if I had to guess. Niko just realized it. 'Melinda's block' is gone for him."

* * *

Niko rushed along an unbeaten path, occasionally jumping onto logs of fallen trees. Once he nearly slipped on a gathering of loose, wet leaves, but he caught himself before Lauren had to act. Eventually he ran out of breath, feeling small stomach cramps after eating. Doubling over against a tree, he stopped for a moment to catch his breath. Lauren did the same thing, only sitting on a nearby log.

"How…far…could he…have gone?" Lauren asked in between breaths.

Niko simply shook his head before mustering up the energy to shout shinx's name through the forest. He repeated several times before having to heave once more, at which point Lauren began shouting for shinx. Niko then got off of the tree he was leaning against and continued walking, albeit slower this time. Lauren caught up to him and, noticing that he looked cold, wrapped her arms around his right one. Niko noticed, but didn't say anything.

They continued walking for what seemed like forever. Eventually, Niko summoned staravia. "Hey buddy, do you mind flying around in the rain, or would you prefer not to?" The starling pokémon looked up at the sky and nodded. "Alright, well we're looking for shinx. Do you think you could help us out?"

Staravia nodded again before turning around and flying off. Once the flying type was out of sight, Niko collapsed against a tree, slowly inching his way down to the ground in a crouching position.

"Are you alright?" Lauren asked, sitting next to him.

"No, I'm not. My pokémon is gone and it's _my_ fault!" Niko said, raising his voice in frustration. "I should know by now not to get mad at them, even for the little things!" He angrily threw a stick he had been playing with at the tree in front of him. It collided with the tree and fell to the ground pitifully.

"Shinx'll be fine, Niko," Lauren said, laying her hand on his forearm in an attempt to comfort him. "I'm sure it's feeling ashamed of itself."

"Yeah, don't I know it…" He replied. "No…Lauren, this has happened before. No with shinx, but with another pokémon I once owned. I almost lost his friendship because of it."

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked softly.

Niko nodded. "He was—is—my feraligatr. Back in Johto, when it was a totodile, I was trying to teach it whirlpool alongside my friend Fay and his newly caught horsea. When horsea was learning whirlpool faster than totodile—and using it perfectly after a few tries—I got really angry with totodile. Later on, it evolved into croconaw, and refused to listen to me. It was only when we got to the last gym in Johto—in Blackthorn City—that we finally made amends. That's also when croconaw evolved into feraligatr and earned me my last badge."

"But you're friends now, correct?"

"Oh, yeah for sure. Feraligatr is without a doubt one of my strongest pokémon. We're very close now. But that's not the point I'm trying to make. Croconaw never outright _left_ me like shinx has done."

"But shinx is _going_ to come back, Niko," Lauren said, gripping his arm. "C'mon, let's get back to it. Staravia will find us."

Niko nodded, and as he was getting up they both heard a crackle of lightning hit the tree behind them. As it began to fall, Niko felt Lauren tug him in her direction, causing them to collide and fall to the ground next to the stricken tree.

Niko soon found himself laying on top of Lauren. For a brief moment, their eyes met once again, as they had during the Tag Team Competition. His face turning light red, Niko scampered back upright, grabbing Lauren's hand and pulling her up and—without any hesitation—into his arms.

Without a second thought Niko leaned into Lauren and returned the kiss from Amity Park. Only this time, it lasted more than a brief second. Niko lay his right hand on her lower back as his left dug into her wet, long, blue hair. Her arms rested against his chest before unfurling themselves and wrapping around his neck. Time seemed to slow significantly for them, but they were only romantically locked for a minute or so, letting time pass by carelessly as they soaked in the passion of the other's admiration.

Eventually, their lips separated, and Lauren simply rested her head against Niko while ran his hand up and down her soaked back. Even though Niko disliked standing still in rain, he didn't care at the moment. He only cared about Lauren.

He then grabbed her shoulders and pushed her away slightly so that he could look her directly in the eyes.

"I admire you, too. I just had trouble understanding it."

Lauren smiled as she gently rested her hand against his cheek. "Well, I'm certainly glad you do. It'd be a real shame if you didn't."

"Oh?" Niko asked teasingly. "How so?"

"You'd be missing out on this," She said before briefly kissing him again, this time on the cheek.

"Oh, that. Well, I _suppose_ you're right."

Just then, they heard a rustling coming from Niko's left. Moments later, shinx burst out of the bushes and into Niko's arms as the trainer crouched down to pick up his pokémon.

"I missed you so much, shinx. And I'm really sorry for yelling at you," He then held shinx in front of him, his hands resting under shinx's front armpits. "But understand that I was yelling with intent—I had a good reason. You were being mean to turtwig, and I won't tolerate it when you bit him like that. Got it?"

Shinx lowered his head, again in shame, before nodding. Niko smiled, and held shinx in his jacket before walking back through the forest, Lauren wrapping her arms around his right while he held shinx with his left. Staravia flew directly above them as they marched onwards.

* * *

"There you…are?" Brittany asked, confused by Lauren and Niko's rather public display of affection. With a simple smile, she ignored the obvious before continuing with another obvious comment. "I see you've found shinx. How far out was he?"

"No idea. But I—we—eventually sent staravia out to find him, and it didn't seem to take long."

"I see shinx isn't the only thing you've found," JJ muttered while he tossed his bag around his shoulder. Lauren blushed and Niko shook his head while laughing before they too grabbed their bags. Niko returned shinx to his pokéball, and at last the four continued onwards towards Veilstone City.

* * *

Once the rain subsided, the path to Veilstone City became clearer, and by the middle of the following day the group made it to their next destination.

Veilstone City was massive. It rested inside a valley that was sandwiched in between a mountain range to the southwest and the sea to the northwest. As the group made their way through the streets, they realized quickly how haggard they looked from braving the rain storm, and immediately went into the Pokémon Center to dry off and change into more comfortable—and drier—clothes.

As they did so, Niko caught Lauren looking at a pamphlet on one of their beds that had a list of things to do in the city—the Department Store, the Pokémon Gym, and a Game Corner, among other activities. There was also a set of meteorites that looked like a traditional tourist attraction. Showing Niko the pamphlet, Lauren laid back on the bed, feeling—and looking—exhausted. Moments later, she felt Niko crash down next to her on the side of the bed. He looked over at her with a smile.

"Well, is there anything you _want_ to do here?" He asked.

"I don't know. The Game Corner sounds cool. And I think JJ needs to go to the Department Store or library or wherever to get a breeding book, right?"

Niko nodded, craning his head over to JJ, who had just gotten out of the shower and dressed again. "Yeah, but I think we could all use a little downtime to go enjoy ourselves. Especially before this gym battle. By the way, how are you feeling about that?"

"What!? Niko asking _me_ how I feel about something?" Lauren asked in mock-surprise.

"Oh, please…" Niko said, lightly pushing her aside.

"I'm kidding. I feel good about it. You?"

"Same. We can definitely win this."

Lauren nodded, turning over to her left and resting half of her body against Niko's while they waited for Brittany to finish getting ready to go out and explore Veilstone City.

* * *

 **Author's note: Admittedly, this was one of the first times i've written a truly romantic scene. I'd like to think I did alright with it, but it's very easy for these types of scenes to come off as kind of cheesy. Let me know what you think. Either way, I hope you enjoyed!**


	23. Hand, foot, and wing!

**Episode 23: Hand, foot, and wing!**

"Dammit!" Lauren shouted, huffing as she got up from the game and glared at Niko. "That game must be rigged!"

"Or maybe you just have bad luck."

She looked at him with a smirk. "Yeah, maybe so."

The group spent their first day in Veilstone City at the Game Corner, an arcade-style attraction that only a few cities had. Niko, JJ, and Brittany remember going to the ones in other regions, and were delighted to have another go at some of the games. The one they kept playing was the slot game, which required them to simply pull a lever. Once they pulled the lever, a series of icons would spin in three columns. The success of each pull was determined by which icons landed in each of the three columns. If a different icon appeared in each column, the played received no payout. However, if the same icon appeared in all three, they would get coins back, depending on the icon.

Lauren was the most frustrated with her results, but it was actually Niko that had the worst luck. He consistently landed on different icons. Brittany, on the other hand, was by far the most successful, landing three "7s" in a row—the best possible outcome. Lastly, JJ did moderately well, with mixed success overall.

After getting another set of three different icons, Niko got up and stopped playing, realizing that he was doing more harm than good with his chances. Looking over at Lauren, he wrapped his left arm around her and pulled her in close as they both watched Brittany and Lauren compete.

The next day they would both compete against Maylene for their fourth Sinnoh gym badge. They both felt relatively confident, but they also understood how easy it was to get too confident. Niko, at least, understood this, and had been a victim of this on a few occasions, which generally made his gym badges—or other pokémon battles—more difficult. He was also certain that Lauren understood this, and felt more comfortable knowing that she did.

Yet he still tried to remind her. "How do you feel about tomorrow?" He asked as they watched JJ pull the lever yet again, and Brittany get two "pikachu" icons in a row, which didn't seem to give her any payout.

"I feel alright, you?"

Niko nodded in agreement. "Just remember to not get too overconfident. Trust me, it can get to you."

"And who said that I was 'getting overconfident?'"

"No one. It's just some friendly advice."

"Well, I appreciate it, Niko, but you shouldn't just assume that after three gym battles—and a fourth as a rematch—that I would get too confident in my abilities. I'm not that kind of person."

"Sorry; you're right, I shouldn't assume," Niko said, looking down at the patterned carpet, feeling slightly ashamed.

"It's fine, I'm not mad!" She said, kissing him on the cheek. "Just something to learn from, right?"

Niko looked up at her and smiled. "Yup!"

* * *

The Veilstone Gym was built in a pagoda-esque style, with a main building in the front that connected to a smaller structure behind it and an even smaller one to its left. The group entered into the main building only to see a dojo-style interior with an ordinary-sized battlefield in the center, similar to the Fuchsia City gym or Saffron City's fighting dojo. To their right, in the back corner of the room, a small, pink haired woman was training on a punching bag next to a machoke, who was punching around a bag that seemed to be made of a harder material. She didn't notice the trainers until an older man in a martial arts uniform walked over and tapped her on the shoulder, disrupting her kick in midair.

"Oh! Hey!" She shouted before walking over to a table in the back, grabbing a towel and water bottle, and began to cool herself down. "You all here for a gym match?"

"No, just me and him," Lauren said, pointing her thumb towards Niko. "You must be the gym leader?"

"Indeed I am. Maylene, pleasure," She said kindly, shaking both Niko and Lauren's hands as they introduced themselves. She wore blue, fingerless gloves that seemed to allow sweat to soak through them.

Maylene was about as tall as Lauren—and a head shorter than Niko, at least. As one might imagine, she had an incredibly fit body. She wore a sleeveless shirt of the same color as her gloves and loose, comfortable looking martial arts pants. On both of her arms and her nose lay band-aids. Lastly, her air was short, bright pink, and curved outward on both ends that looked almost like horns.

"Now, my gym battles are three-on-three. If you don't have a third pokémon, I can remove one of my own from the battle."

"That won't be necessary," Niko replied. "We both have three."

"Excellent! Now, who's first?" She said, turning to each of them. Lauren stepped up, as Niko had gone first in their previous gym match. Maylene smirked as she leapt over to her side in a few graceful bounds, motioning for her machoke to join her. "Alright, machoke will be my first. What's yours? Also, Connally, can you judge the matches for me?"

"Yes Maylene, of course," The older man—Connally—said plainly, making his way to the middle of the battlefield, just in front of the stands that JJ, Brittany, and Niko sat in. Connally then recited the traditional rules of a gym match. Once he was finished, Lauren began the battle.

"Roselia, you're up!" She shouted. "Use bullet seed!"

"Machoke, rock tomb!" Maylene commanded. The superpower pokémon stretched its arms out wide before slamming its hands together with the sound of thunder. Suddenly, stone slabs appeared around roselia, positioning themselves at a diagonal angle to make it look like a pointed rock. The stone slabs gradually moved in closer, squeezing the thorn pokémon.

"Use magical leaf!" Lauren directed. Roselia then pointed both of her rose-hands at the slab sitting in between her and machoke, and fired a series of purple leaves at the slab, almost instantly breaking it. The leaves then found their way towards machoke, overwhelming the superpower pokémon. Then, on Lauren's command, roselia rushed forward and fired off a combination of bullet seed and stun spore, paralyzing the machoke in its tracks. "Now, bullet seed and mega drain!"

Roselia nodded before pointing a different rose at machoke and shooting out glowing green seeds at a rapid rate, hitting machoke in the arms and aggressively sapping its energy. The fighting type collapsed onto the ground.

"Machoke, remember your training…you can do this," Maylene said calmly. "Use brick break!"

Machoke stood back up, the stun spore wearing off, and rushed at the tiny thorn pokémon, its hand straight as a stick. It then slammed down its hand on roselia, who attempted to block with magical leaf. The machoke braved the hit as it successfully landed its move, crushing roselia under the power of brick break.

"Now, dynamicpunch!" Maylene shouted, punching through the air.

Machoke's right fist began to glow as it attempted to land another attack on its opponent. However, roselia quickly recovered from the brick break and agilely moved out of the way, firing off another bullet seed/stun spore combo, this time at machoke's face. The superpower pokémon collapsed face-first onto the ground.

"Roselia! Finish it off with magical leaf!" Lauren shouted, stretching out both of her arms to each side. The thorn pokémon obliged, doing the same as she released the purple leaves at her opponent, quickly subduing machoke.

"Machoke is unable to battle, roselia wins!" Connally shouted. "Leader Maylene will now use her second pokémon!"

"Meditite, you're up!" Maylene shouted. The small, blue and white fighting type launched onto the field, its large, black and white eyes glaring at roselia from under its onion-shaped head. Lauren and roselia proceeded with caution, knowing that meditite was perfectly capable of using psychic moves as well.

"Roselia, magical leaf!" Lauren directed, knowing that the move was bound to hit regardless. The thorn pokémon opened its arms wide once more, purple leaves emitting from in front of her body. Meditite braved the attack before rushing forward with unusual speed and power.

"Drain punch!" Maylene shouted, punching this time with her left fist. Meditite's arm began to glow a light brown color, with white tendrils swirling from the front of its fist. Roselia dodged the move, fortunately, but Maylene then directed meditite to use confusion, quickly taking control of the thorn pokémon. Meditite, using its psychic abilities, brought roselia towards it. "Now, drain punch again!"

Before roselia could even attempt to evade, it felt the full force of the punch slam into it like a wave of energy. It also suddenly felt fatigued, as its power had been suddenly drained.

"Meditite, confusion!" Maylene commanded. Meditite obliged, its eyes glowing a bright purple color as it took control of the weakened roselia and brought it forward, launching a final drain punch at the grass type, defeating it.

"Roselia is unable to battle, meditite wins! Lauren will now send out her second pokémon!" Connally declared.

"Monferno, let's go!" Lauren shouted. "Use flame wheel!"

"Meditite, drain punch!" Maylene directed. While monferno launched into a revolving wheel of fire, the meditate pokémon held its ground, its fist glowing once more. However, hitting with flame wheel wasn't Lauren's original plan. Once monferno got closer, she commanded the playful pokémon to flank to the right and use mach punch. Monferno leapt forward, exiting her flame wheel, and dove down to hit meditite. However, the attack suddenly missed. "Detect," Maylene said with a teasing wink. "Meditite, use drain punch!"

"Block it with ember!" Lauren commanded. Monferno suddenly began spitting out fireballs at the psychic type in an effort to distract it. The tactic seemed to work well enough, as the drain punch missed, allowing monferno to undercut meditite and use mach punch upwards, slamming her fist into meditite's chin, forcing the psychic type into the air vertically. "Now, ember!"

Monferno nodded, firing off a series of small fireballs as meditite soared through the air. Once it began to descend, Lauren directed monferno to use mach punch. The playful pokémon obliged, its fist glowing as it delivered the final blow to the meditate pokémon with a punch to the chest, knocking the wind out of it.

"Meditite is unable to battle, monferno wins! Maylene will now send out her final pokémon!" Connally declared.

"Return, monferno," Lauren said before Maylene could continue. "Buneary, you're up!" She shouted, summoning the rabbit pokémon. "Be ready, fighting types are difficult to beat."

"I hope you're confident in your strategy, Lauren," Maylene said, tossing a pokéball in her hand. "Because I won't make this easy for you. Lucario, I choose you!"

 _Lucario!?_ Lauren thought. _Well, shit…but I can't go back on this, now. Buneary will have to fight_. Shaking her head to regain the appearance of confidence, Lauren initiated. "Buneary, quick attack into jump kick!"

The rabbit pokémon dashed forward with blinding speed—at least, for a rabbit—towards lucario.

"Bone rush!" Maylene commanded. Lucario conjured a glowing white bone from in between its hands, holding it out in front of buneary. However, the aura pokémon did not anticipate buneary's speed, as the normal type leapt over the glowing bone and kicked lucario in the face before jumping over it, gracefully landing on its two feet.

"Great, buneary! Now use thunderpunch!" Lauren shouted. As buneary turned around, she immediately met lucario's bone rush, as the white bone slapped the rabbit across the face, launching it to the side in much the same way her old rival—kricketune—had done. Buneary quickly got back up, its fist still glowing with electric sparks. Buneary rushed forward once more with quick attack before getting smacked again with bone rush, this time rolling across the battlefield towards her trainer.

"Lucario, aura sphere!" Maylene shouted. Lucario nodded, throwing the white bone aside while it dissolved before twisting to its right, a swirling blue ball of energy appearing in between its paws. It then launched the attack at buneary as it was getting up. The rabbit was struck in the chest, launching her backwards into Lauren, who also fell onto her back.

"Buneary is unable to battle, lucario wins!" Connally declared. "Lauren will now send out her final pokémon!"

"Buneary, return. You did great for a first gym battle. I'm really proud of you. Monferno, now it's your time to shine!" Lauren shouted, sending out her fire type. "Use mach punch!"

"Lucario, bone rush!" Maylene directed as lucario summoned another long white bone from between its paws. It too charged at its opponent. The two collided, with monferno evading the first bone rush swipe. She then slammed her glowing white fist into lucario's right side, causing the aura pokémon to reel for a moment before slamming its white bone at monferno's side, knocking the playful pokémon to the ground. "Now, force palm!"

"Monferno, ember!" Lauren commanded. The fire type fired off a few small fireballs at her opponent before being picked up by some supernatural force and launched into the stands behind it. "Flame wheel!"

"Lucario, force palm!" Maylene shouted. Lucario nodded, and once more took command of its opponent. However, monferno's flame wheel was still burning once she crashed into the stands on the opposite end of the battlefield. The playful pokémon launched herself over the stands and across the field, colliding with lucario, who attempted to smack monferno with another bone rush. Lucario fell onto its back as monferno jumped out of the flame wheel. "Aura sphere!"

"Monferno, mach punch!" Lauren shouted. The playful pokémon's arm began to glow as it slammed it down on one of lucario's paws, disrupting the aura sphere. She then launched another mach punch in quick succession, this time at lucario's torso. Monferno then gave her opponent time to get back up, awaiting Lauren's next attack. "Now, finish it off with flame wheel!"

"Lucario, aura sphere!" Maylene commanded. Monferno leapt forward, conjuring a wheel of fire around herself before launching at her opponent, who was busy preparing an aura sphere.

The two attacks collided in the middle of the field, the force of which rocketed both lucario and monferno in opposite directions. Both pokémon crashed onto the ground next to their respective trainers, but after a moment only monferno got back up.

"Lucario is unable to battle, monferno is the winner! The victory goes to challenger Lauren from Canalave City!" Connally shouted.

Lauren crouched down as monferno ran over to her leaping into her embrace. The tow sat there for a moment before feeling Niko's finger tap her shoulder. Getting up, she brought him into a hug before wishing him luck and taking his place in the stands alongside monferno, Brittany, and JJ.

Niko waited for a moment before Maylene returned with her healed pokémon. Connally repeated the rules of the match to Niko before allowing him to begin. He chose staravia—this time, Maylene chose meditite.

"Confusion!" Maylene commanded.

"Staravia, double team!" Niko shouted, using the move as a way to distract their opponent. "Now, quick wing attack, just like we practiced!"

The real staravia dove towards his opponent while one of his duplicates got caught in the confusion and dissolved. The starling pokémon crashed into meditite, knocking it over and flying back into the air, ready for round two.

"Meditite, drain punch!" Maylene commanded. Staravia largely repeated the same move, this time diving down and slamming into meditite once more. However, he also felt a sudden loss of energy from the drain punch, which severely weakened the starling. Nonetheless, he got back into the air, ready for round three.

"Staravia, once more! We can win this!" Niko shouted. Staravia nodded, rushing forward to use wing attack a third time. Meditite tried to evade using detect, but on Niko's command, staravia used double team to distract the meditate pokémon, ultimately swinging around and slamming into the psychic type's back, instead of from the front, from which meditite was trying to dodge.

The psychic type lurched forward before getting hit a second time by staravia, this time to the right side, with quick attack, knocking it down and decisively ending the match.

"Meditite is unable to battle, staravia wins! Leader Maylene will now use her second pokémon!" Connally declared.

"Machoke, you're up!" Maylene shouted. "Use rock tomb!"

"Staravia, double team again!" Niko directed. Staravia duplicated itself a few times before the rock tomb lurched vertically, hitting one of the copies and causing it to dissolve into air. "Now, quick wing attack!"

Maylene and machoke were oddly patient for a few moments before the gym leader shouted. "Brick break!"

Machoke's hand flared up in a bright white color before it slammed it down on staravia's head, rocketing the flying type into the ground.

"Now, finish it off with rock tomb!" Maylene commanded, confident in her ability to end the second match of the battle.

"Staravia, double team once more!" Niko calmly commanded. Staravia once more duplicated itself, once more dodging the rock tomb and giving it some time to recover from the brick break. Once machoke realized it had missed, staravia was high up in the air. "Staravia, we can win this right now. Use aerial ace!"

"Machoke, dynamicpunch!" Maylene shouted. Machoke's right fist flared up with energy and it tucked it carefully behind its back in anticipation of aerial ace. Staravia dove down with an unusual amount of speed. As machoke launched its dynamicpunch, however, staravia flanked to the right, flying past machoke before lurching back around and hitting the superpower pokémon in the back, knocking it forward.

"Finish it off with wing attack!" Niko commanded. The starling pokémon burst forward, his wings glowing white. He shot into the air before turning back around and diving directly downwards at his opponent. Both pokémon crashed into the ground.

"Machoke is unable to battle, staravia wins!" Connally declared. "Leader Maylene will now use her third pokémon!"

"Lucario, let's go!" Maylene commanded. Niko steeled himself in preparation for this match. He knew staravia was exhausted by now, but he certainly had the upper hand. "Use force palm!"

"Double team!" Niko commanded. However, the starling pokémon, due to exhaustion, did not react as quickly as it normally would, and suddenly fell under the control of the aura pokémon, who manipulated the energy around staravia to send it flying into the empty stands opposite of Niko's friends. Fortunately, staravia managed to get back up with some ease. Understanding that his pokémon might not last much longer, Niko wanted to do as much possible damage to lucario as he could. "Staravia, aerial ace!"

Staravia shot forward, white tendrils streaming from its beak as it crashed into lucario, who used force palm to quickly subdue its opponent. Staravia collided with the ground moments later, finally defeated.

"Staravia is unable to battle, lucario wins!" Connally declared. "Niko will not use his second pokémon!"

"Turtwig, you're up!" Niko cried out. Taking a deep breath, he shouted for the tiny leaf pokémon to use razor leaf, which was quickly blocked by lucario's bone rush, as the aura pokémon was repelling the leaves by spinning the glowing white bone in its hands. "Alright, then, use absorb!"

Turtwig nodded, this time allowing its seedling to glow bright green, sapping the energy from lucario. While lucario was distracted by the absorb, turtwig summoned another round of razor leaves at the aura pokémon, who took several to the face before using force palm to toss the rest aside.

"Lucario, force palm!" Maylene directed. The fighting type took control of turtwig and, manipulating the energy around him, forced the tiny lead pokémon forward. "Now, bone rush!"

Lucario let go of turtwig and immediately brought the white bone down on the grass type' head, sending it crashing into the ground. Niko commanded turtwig to use razor leaf. The attack once more hit, but lucario instead tossed the white bone aside and focused on conjuring an aura sphere while taking hits from a seemingly endless torrent of razor-sharp leaves.

"Now!" Maylene shouted. Lucario then launched the aura sphere as turtwig jumped forward and bit down hard onto lucario's left arm. The aura sphere exploded in between the two pokémon, causing them both to repel in opposite directions. However, lucario was far sturdier than turtwig, and thus survived the collision of attacks.

"Turtwig is unable to battle, lucario wins! Niko will now send out his third and final pokémon!" Connally commanded.

"Alright, then. Piplup, your time to shine!" Niko shouted, summoning his penguin pokémon. "It's up to you now, buddy. Think you can do this?"

"Pip!" Piplup shouted eagerly, puffing out his chest in a show of strength towards lucario.

"Let's do this," Niko said, balling up a fist in his left hand. "Water pulse!"

"Lucario, aura sphere!" Maylene directed. Both glowing orbs launched towards one another, colliding in the middle of the battlefield like two magnets of opposite charges. The result was an explosion of water that drenched the field around it. Piplup took the opportunity to then rush forward towards lucario while his opponent did the same. Lucario conjured a bone rush that smacked piplup to the side, causing him to roll around in the middle of the field before jumping back up and landing on its flippers. Piplup then released a stream of fast-moving bubbles that lucario attempted to block using bone rush. However, while piplup was using bubble, he conjured a water pulse and tossed it at lucario. Overwhelmed, the attack slammed into lucario, causing it to fall backwards.

"Piplup! Use peck!" Niko shouted, thrusting a fist forward.

"Lucario, bone rush!" Maylene said, jumping and performing a spinning kick in the air. Lucario got back up immediately and attempted to smack piplup away but missed. The penguin pokémon then dove and pecked at lucario's face, just under the fighting type's eye. Lucario then tried to use force palm, but failed as it piplup got out of its line of vision. As it began to stand back up, a water pulse was dropped on it, exploding upon contact with the aura pokémon. Lucario instantly fell back to the ground, defeated.

"Lucario is unable to battle, piplup is the winner! And the victory goes to challenger Niko from Pallet Town!" Connally declared.

"Yeah! Piplup!" Niko shouted, running onto the field and picking piplup up, who was ecstatic, yet very much exhausted. "You did it, buddy. I'm really proud of you. You know that, right?"

The penguin nodded as he rested in Niko's arms, turning to lucario and saluting it with his flipper. Lucario returned the gesture before looking at Maylene, who was approaching Niko and Lauren, who was just shown up next to Niko, holding her left arm around his waist.

"Niko, Lauren, you both proved today what capable trainers you are. As proof of this capability, allow me to reward you each with the Cobble Badge. Here," Maylene said, taking two square-shaped silver and bronze badges that looked similar to small bricks of differing sizes. Niko and Lauren both took the badges, showing piplup and monferno, respectively. They then both thanked Maylene for the gym battles, and proceeded to exit the gym when Maylene called them both.

"What's up?" Lauren said as they turned back around.

"Do you, by any chance, plan on going to Pastoria City next?"

"Err…maybe? Why?"

"Well, two things: one, that's the closest gym to here, so if you haven't already challenged the leader there, I do suggest it. However, I also would like it if you tell the gym leader—Crasher Wake—hi for me. It's been a while since I've seen him," She added with a slight nervousness in her tone.

Niko smiled earnestly. "Of course we can. Thanks again, Maylene!"

"Thank you, too! Good luck!"

With that, the four marched off towards the Pokémon Center, where they would eat and prepare for their next gym match and Pokémon Contest as they moved to south towards Pastoria City.


	24. Fangs of frustration!

**Episode 24: Fangs of frustration!**

"Shinx, stop biting me!" Niko said as he tried prying the flash pokémon's teeth out of his arm. "This is the second time today, what's going on with you?" He sat shinx down in front of him. The feline-like pokémon sat on its hind legs, clearly appearing ashamed of its actions. _Yet, for whatever reason, he keeps biting me._ Niko thought.

"I wonder why…" JJ said, carefully observing shinx's body for any sign of injury. "Doesn't look like there's anything agitating it. Sometimes animals act unnecessarily aggressive when they're hurt. Like when they have a thorn stuck in their paw, for example. But shinx doesn't."

"It could be subconscious," Lauren suggested. "Because it always feels bad after acting out, like it did in that rainstorm the other day."

"Maybe so," Niko said as he picked shinx up. "Just please stop biting me, buddy? It kinda hurts…like, a lot," Shinx nodded, albeit looking away from his trainer. Niko smiled sympathetically before returning his pokémon to his pokéball.

The group had decided on Pastoria City as their next generation, per Maylene's suggestion. According to Lucas' map, Pastoria City—sitting on the southeastern edge of the region—would be a little over a week away. Brittany and Lauren, by eavesdropping on another conversation, discovered that there would be a Pokémon Contest at Lake Valor in a few days. As the lake was on the way, Niko and JJ didn't mind it.

In the afternoon following Niko and Lauren's victory against Leader Maylene, the group went to the Veilstone Department Store to gather up on supplies for their trip. As usual, Brittany and JJ handled much of the shopping while Niko spent time perusing the aisles, looking for anything that caught his eye. This time, he had Lauren to accompany him.

"You alright?" Lauren asked as they walked down one of the drink aisles. Whenever they shopped at a store, Niko liked to get some drink that wasn't water, like lemonade or some other fruit-flavored drink. Sometimes he would get multiple so that he could share with his pokémon. As he scoured the aisles for something he hadn't yet tried, he answered Lauren's question.

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"You seem…off right now. Is it just looking for a drink, or is there something actually bothering you?"

"Well, both I guess. Actually, wait," Niko said as he picked out a grape-flavored drink from a brand he had not yet tried. "I think piplup'll like this. Of all my pokémon, he likes fruit drinks and, interestingly enough, trying new things."

"Niko…"

"Right, right. I'm just worried about shinx," He began as he pulled out four more drinks, one for each of his pokémon, "Like, I don't know what's wrong with him, and so it worries me that I can't do anything to help him feel better, you know? I don't even think shinx himself understands what's wrong with him."

"I'm sure it'll become clearer soon enough. These things have a way of working out," Lauren said optimistically.

"You think so?" Niko replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah! I mean, _we_ worked out, didn't we?"

"I suppose so. Can't argue with that. Are you going to get anything?" When Lauren shook her head, they both proceeded to the cashier to pay and left the store. Finding a bench nearby in the middle of the department store, they both sat down and waited for Brittany and JJ to finish. While they waited, they talked about different training tactics that they wanted to try out before the next gym battle. Niko also offered—for the first time—to help Lauren prepare for her contests. He wasn't much help when it came to the performance aspect, but he could certainly help her with the battling portion. They both agreed to try out a practice battle between the two of them the following evening, after they have left Veilstone City.

Later that evening, Niko was laying on his bed with his pokémon. Staravia was sitting on a chair to his bed's right while turtwig and piplup lay next to him on his bed. Shinx, on the other hand, sat near the window, which Niko's bed was closest to.

"Hey, buddy," Niko said while Lauren and Brittany were off getting something to drink, and JJ was reading about poffin recipes with his pokémon. The flash pokémon turned and looked up at Niko, who tapped the edge of his bed. "Come up here and join us."

Shinx hesitated before eventually getting up from its spot near the window and jumping onto the bed effortlessly. He then curled up at Niko's feet. The trainer originally wanted shinx to get closer to him, but he chose not to make a big deal out of it, knowing that this wasn't where his pokémon preferred to sleep at all. _I do admire your independence, shinx. I hope you realize that. But I also like being your trainer, and I want to see you do your best. Plus, I wouldn't be saying that if I didn't think you had the potential to be a powerful pokémon._

Even though Niko was only thinking, he could have sworn he saw shinx's ears twitch in response to his thoughts. No one—trainer nor pokémon—had made a sound the entire time.

* * *

The following morning, the group finally set off for Pastoria City. The way to the city and to Lake Valor ran through route 214, which was essentially just a plains environment that resided on the edge of a small mountain range. They walked for most of the day before stopping by a lake to set up camp for the night. While they did so, they watched as another group of trainers passed by them. However, the group didn't seem to notice Niko and his friends.

After they set up, Niko and Lauren took to the space by the lake's edge to conduct their battle. It would be a simple two-versus-two battle, in the event that Lake Valor's contest was a double performance contest. JJ was the judge while Brittany elected to watch Lauren's perspective from a Contest Judge's point of view.

"Shinx, piplup, let's go!" Niko shouted.

"Monferno, buneary, I choose you!" Lauren commanded. "Mach punch on piplup, jump kick on shinx!"

"Shinx, spark! Piplup, peck!" Niko directed. Shinx, as usual, charged up electricity in its fur while it awaited his opponent. Once buneary got close enough, shinx released the spark, which shocked an unsuspecting buneary. Meanwhile, monferno and piplup collided in the middle of the field, beak meeting fist. The force of the two physical attacks repelled them backwards. "Piplup, water pulse!"

"Monferno, slow it down with ember! Buneary, thunderpunch on piplup!"

"Oh no you don't! Shinx, bite on buneary!" Niko shouted back. Shinx charged forward, leaping into the air and intercepting buneary, biting onto her torso before descending back towards the ground. Both pokémon, however, collided with their teammates' attacks—shinx with water pulse, buneary with ember. Doubly injured, the feline and rabbit crashed onto the grass, slowly getting back up.

"Buneary, I'm so sorry!" Lauren said, snapping her head back up at Niko. "You'll pay for that. Monferno, mach punch on piplup, buneary thunderpunch on shinx!" Both of her pokémon bounded forward with their fists ready at their sides. Meanwhile Niko responded with water pulse and spark on monferno and buneary. Piplup's attack worked well, spraying monferno with a wave of water once the playful pokémon's fist collided with it. However, buneary managed to use shinx's spark to power up her thunderpunch, which slammed square in shinx's face, knocking the flash pokémon back several feet. "Buneary, follow up with jump kick towards piplup!"

As buneary rushed towards the penguin pokémon, out of nowhere shinx bounds towards her and tackles her to the ground before releasing a rush of electric energy from his body and into hers, electrocuting the rabbit. While severely damaged, buneary wasn't out, but she was certainly trapped. Monferno, having recovered from the water pulse, rushed at shinx with a mach punch, but the flash pokémon evaded before biting onto monferno's other arm and releasing a surge of electricity through his mouth and into monferno, also electrocuting her.

"Shinx…" Niko said. "I—I didn't command you to—oh no," Niko said as he watched shinx turn around towards piplup as monferno collapsed next to her partner. "Shinx, stop that!"

The flash pokémon bounded at piplup, fangs bared, as it latched down onto the penguin's right flipper and unleashing another surge of electricity. Piplup screamed to the heavens, the electricity sapping its energy.

"No…you…don't…!" Niko shouted, grabbing onto shinx. As he did so, shinx released a spark of electricity at Niko, who howled in pain from the sudden attack. " _Shinx! Stop this now! What the hell is wrong with you!?_ "

Shinx then bit down on Niko. As he did so, piplup got back up and ran over to his trainer, helping to pry shinx off as Niko had done the day before. Monferno and buneary also ran over to help. Eventually they all got the electric pokémon off as it collapsed in Niko's arms.

"Shinx? Shinx!?" Niko said, shaking the feline pokémon.

"Niko, it might just be exhausted…" JJ commented.

As he did, the flash pokémon began to glow. He grew to twice his size, or enough that forced Niko to lay down the evolving pokémon. The newly evolved shinx had a longer tail with a four-pointed yellow star on the end; larger ears; and a thick, black mane that went around his neck and met back on the top with a tuft of fur sticking up straight. On his front two legs were two sets of yellow ring-like patterns, and the back half of his body was covered in all black fur, while his front half was a mix of black fur (all on the mane) and light blue fur.

Once he stopped evolving, Niko began to understand. _So…did you act up because you were evolving? Is that normal for shinx to do?_ He relayed his ideas to his friends as he pulled out his pokédex:

" _Luxio, the spark pokémon. Electric type. Strong electricity courses through the tips of its sharp claws. A light scratch causes fainting in foes_."

"That could be it, Niko, but it doesn't sound like its normal for shinx as a species. Maybe it's just _your_ shinx in particular, which was obviously wild when you caught it and seemed to be more feral than the other pokémon you've caught before," Brittany observed.

"Maybe so. We'll just have to see if this was just a phase or if it's luxio's regular behavior. Either way, I'm glad it calmed down," Luxio then opened his eyes and looked at Niko. "Hey buddy. Hope you're feeling better, you kinda went crazy on us again. But hey! You evolved!"

Luxio nodded before slowly getting back up and licking Niko's face while his trainer brought him in for a hug.

"Like I've said before, I'm really proud of you, and I admire your independence. But I also want to keep training you to watch you live up to your potential. Can we continue to work on that?"

Luxio looked at Niko and nodded, an ambitious look on his face. Niko then put luxio down and held out his hand in preparation for a handshake, forgetting everything he learned from luxio's dex entry. Once he made contact with the spark pokémon's paw, he felt a surge of electricity course through him. After yelping in a high-pitched tone—and listening to his friend's shouts of laughter—he stumbled getting back up and walked over to have a drink and relax.

During dinner, he gave his pokémon the grape-flavored drink that he bought in Veilstone City. As he expected, piplup loved it, but staravia wasn't a fan, and so the starling pokémon gave his to piplup, who eagerly downed it. Luxio slowly drank his, exhausted enough from the day's events as it was.

While they did this, Brittany and Lauren went through the battle the latter had with Niko, discussing possible points where she could have improved. Lauren understood most of her mistakes, but they both acknowledged—out of Niko's and luxio's hearing—that had the battle not been interrupted, Lauren would have probably won and might have won had it been an actual contest battle. Regardless, she did have a lot to work on, as did Brittany, who wanted to spend the next couple of days preparing heavily for the contest that she and Lauren hoped to participate in.

* * *

 **Author's note: Short episode, but I wanted to focus a bit on Niko's shinx/luxio a little. It doesn't look like a lot of character development, but the evolution does change luxio a little as he soon gets used to being stronger and more in control of its power and emotions than he was before.**

 **Also, I realize it isn't normal for shinx to act aggressive and feral before they evolve. That feature is reserved for rockruff/lycanroc. However, I did like the idea and wanted to try it out with shinx, and I would like to believe that I made it work out. The idea of shinx being more feral than Niko is used to makes his evolution more unique and meaningful, in my opinion. It forces shinx to come to terms with his attitude, as he has often felt ashamed by his actions once he realizes how Niko feels, which is not how he had originally acted when he would constantly fight with turtwig (which also upset Niko).**

 **Either way, I hope this explanation clears some things up (if it doesn't let me know). I hope you enjoyed!**


	25. Contest near the lake

**Episode 25: Contest near the lake**

"Nikoooo! Wake up!" Niko heard Lauren shout in his ear as she shook him, ruffling the blankets he was sleeping under. "Wake up!"

The brown-haired trainer lazily opened his eyes and looked up at Lauren's face, which looked radiant against the morning sun pouring through the windows. Her dark eyes gleamed as she stared down at him with a playful smile, her nose crinkled a little. Lastly, he blue hair fell down the sides of her face onto her shoulders.

"What is it?" He asked groggily.

"Well, first starters you slept in later than usual. Secondly, the contest is soon, and I've got to go!"

"Then go…?"

"Well, I wanted to make sure you were awake first!" She said before pushing him back down onto the bed and leaping onto him. "So…you awake?"

"Yes I am!" Niko replied, shoving her to the empty side of the bed and getting out. Lauren huffed silently before rolling off the bed herself and walking over to Niko. As he grabbed his clothes for the day, he leaned down and pecked her on the cheek. "Now, shouldn't you be getting ready for the contest?"

"We're pretty ready to go, actually. Everyone—including your pokémon—are out in the dining hall having breakfast," Niko nodded and went to take a shower and get dressed.

The group had decided to stay at the Hotel Grand Lake for the next Pokémon Contest, which was being held at Lake Valor just down the road. Lake Valor is situated in the southeastern portion of the Sinnoh region, and due to its proximity to the beaches—and warm water—it is a major vacation spot in the region, hence the Hotel Grand Lake. Due to its activity and tourist traffic, the lake also hosts not only a contest of its own, but also the annual Grand Festival in Sinnoh.

They had arrived at the hotel the previous evening after a few days of travelling, and found the place to not only be cheaper than they had imagined, but also one of the more comfortable hotels they've stayed at.

Since luxio's evolution, Niko has been spending more time than usual with it. His other pokémon seemed to understand, as they were worried about luxio's development due to its more aggressive nature recently. So, for much of the journey to Lake Valor, Niko would spend time working with the spark pokémon, starting from the basics and moving back up until he felt more comfortable in its own skin.

Compared to his other pokémon's evolutions, luxio's was one of the more bizarre transformations. Not necessarily in looks—it didn't change much in that department—but in its attitude and behavior. Luxio wasn't as aggressive; rather, he was more uncomfortable with itself. Whether it was due to shame he may have felt for its actions towards Niko, turtwig, and piplup, or the simple concept of evolution itself, Niko didn't really know. All he knew is that luxio needed some more training, so that when they face Crasher Wake in Pastoria City, they would both be ready.

Niko thought more about this while he walked into the dining hall of the hotel, where only JJ was sitting, togepi on his lap and umbreon as his side.

"Morning," He said, absorbed in his poffin book. "How're you?"

"Doing alright. You?" Niko asked.

"Everything's good, man. Tried a new recipe this morning. Luckily, the people at this hotel allowed me to borrow their poffin maker to try out a new recipe. I gave it to Brittany and Lauren's pokémon—they seemed to like it," He then looked back down at his book. "Man, I can't wait to get one of these one day."

"A poffin maker?" Niko asked. JJ looked back up and nodded before getting back to reading while Niko ate a quick meal. Within minutes, they were off to the Contest Hall.

* * *

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Lake Valor Pokémon Contest! I'm your host, Marian, and we've got quite the show for you today! We have coordinators from all over Sinnoh and beyond competing with style and grace befitting a coordinator. For those unfamiliar, let me go through the different stages of a contest:

"The first round is the Performance Round. Each coordinator dresses up and enters a pokémon to perform. This contest will require coordinators to use two pokémon in a performance. Coordinators may use as many moves as they would like within the three-minute time limit. In the second round—the Battle Round—coordinators will face off against one another using the same pokémon from before, or a different one if they so choose to. In this contest, like with the Performance Round, coordinators will be required to use two pokémon in a Battle Round. The winner of the Battle Round will be granted the Contest Ribbon. Now, without further ado, join me in welcoming our first coordinator from…"

As usual, Brittany and Lauren—clad in their contest attire of a sparkling red dress and a blue flower dress, respectively—watched as Marian introduced each coordinator in turn. The second one they recognized as Mikey, the orange-haired friend that they met in Solaceon Town. This time, he performed with a pokémon called ambipom. According to their pokédex, ambipom was a normal type pokémon that evolved from aipom. It is a purple simian pokémon with two long tails, each with large, rounded hands and three red-tipped fingers. Otherwise, it looked much like an overgrown aipom, with two split hairs popping from its head, instead of a small tuft of fur on its head, as is the case with aipom.

Mikey's ambipom seemed to perform well, and they told him so when he and ambipom entered into the backroom.

"Hey girls! Thanks!" Mikey said as he waved over to them before turning to another friend and speaking with her for a bit. The Lake Valor contest had an unusually large amount of contestants, much like Jubilife City. It hardly seemed to intimidate Lauren, but it certainly intimidated Brittany, who tried to not let it get to her this time.

Brittany was the tenth coordinator to perform. She chose to use her combusken again. Ordinarily, she might've chosen vespiquen, but she had yet to work on a performance with the bee pokémon, and didn't want to risk it in a contest with so many contestants competing. Instead, she had combusken use a combination of fire spin, double kick, and attract. In this performance, the young fowl pokémon conjured a fiery tornado around her before emitting pink hearts from attract. Then, combusken jumped and spun through the air, kicking at the hearts as they entered the space between the pokémon and the tornado. However, unlike previous performances where the hearts would simply float in the air, combusken was kicking them at a rapid fire pace. Barrages of flaming hearts exited the tornado at a fast pace before combusken ended the fire spin, bowed to the audience in coordination with her trainer, and the two walked off into the backroom.

"Great job combusken, Brittany!" Lauren said in congratulations as the fire type sat in between the two coordinators.

"Thanks. We decided to use a similar performance from back in Hoenn, only this time we added a few things to it," Brittany replied, stroking combusken's back. They continued to watch the other performances until it was Lauren's turn to walk onto the stage.

Lauren summoned roselia for their performance. The thorn pokémon released magical leaves into the air, but commanded them to halt in random spaces throughout the stage, and at varying heights. Under Lauren's direction, roselia then closed her eyes and fired off bullet seeds from both of her rose-hands, accurately ripping through each leaf—bar only a few. Once roselia opened her eyes again, dozens more ripped up leaves scattered the floor of the stage, and she bowed.

The crowd cheered her as she and roselia exited the stage for the backroom, smiling as Brittany and Mikey complimented them. They all sat and watched the remaining performances until it was time for Marian to announce the top 8 coordinators that were moving on.

Fortunately, Brittany, Lauren, and Mikey all made it into the Battle Round. However, Brittany was facing off against Mikey, and Lauren was up against some random trainer.

"And now, for our first match of the Battle Round, we have Brittany and Mikey!" Marian announced, her voice booming through the microphone. The unusually large crowd cheered as Brittany and Mikey took opposite sides of the stage. Each pulling out a pokéball, the match began as soon as the monitor turned on, revealing their faces and an elongated yellow bar under each one.

"Ambipom, you're up!" Mikey shouted.

"Vespiquen, I choose you!" Brittany said. "Use power gem!"

"Ambipom, block it with double hit!" Mikey directed, pushing back a rogue strain of orange hair from his face. The long tail pokémon's dual tails slapped away the barrage of bright pink gems emitting from the bottom of vespiquen's body, occasionally sending one back towards Brittany and her bee pokémon.

"Vespiquen, gust and power gem!" Brittany shouted. The bug type, still unaccustomed to battling (comparatively speaking), attempted to use both attacks at once, which resulted in the power gems getting caught in the gust and inadvertently sending gems flying everywhere on the stage, each one missing their intended target. Taking advantage of this, Mikey commanded ambipom to use swift.

Leaping through the air and spinning clockwise, ambipom's two tails emitted a flurry of white stars at vespiquen, disrupting the failed attempt at gust and knocking the bee pokémon backwards. However, ambipom made the mistake of getting too close to vespiquen, since Brittany then commanded vespiquen to use bug bite.

The bee pokémon descended upon ambipom, ignoring the double hit and landing its honeycomb-shaped bottom on her opponent's head, furiously biting at it. Once vespiquen removed itself, Brittany commanded she use power gem. Vespiquen once again attempted the rock type move, successfully releasing a series of glowing pink rocks at ambipom, knocking it backwards.

"Now, blow it away with gust!" Brittany shouted, thrusting her hand forward. Vespiquen nodded, spinning the bottom of its body around in a circle before releasing the resulting gust of wind at ambipom, which nearly defeated it. Brittany looked up at her score—her bar was significantly low, but Mikey's was lower with only a minute to spare.

"Ambipom, can you get back up? Mikey asked. Ambipom nodded, stepping up to use swift once more. However, vespiquen beat the normal type to it, launching a final power gem to defeat the long tail. Ambipom fell on its back, defeated.

"Ambipom is unable to battle, vespiquen wins! The victory goes to Brittany!" Marian declared.

"Great job, vespiquen!" Brittany said, running over and hugging her pokémon. "We just need to work on combining moves, but you did amazing otherwise. I'm very proud of you," She said with a smile. Vespiquen nodded happily.

"Great battle, Brittany," Mikey said as he returned ambipom and walked with his new rival into the backroom. "I'll be rooting for ya!"

"Thanks, Mikey! You and ambipom did great, too!"

Mikey nodded with a smile before walking through the backroom and into the adjoining lobby. Meanwhile, Lauren was up against a trainer from Pastoria City named Cramer and his carnivine. Curious, Brittany pulled out her pokédex to analyze the flytrap-like pokémon:

" _Carnivine, the bug catcher pokémon. Grass type. It binds itself to trees in marshes. It attracts prey with its sweet-smelling drool and gulps them down_."

"What a lovely pokémon…" Brittany said, sitting down on a nearby bench and watching the battle unfold on the monitor above.

"Buneary, let's go!" Lauren shouted. "Use quick attack!"

"Carnivine, crunch!" Cramer directed. As buneary got close enough—which didn't take very long—the bug catcher pokémon opened its wide maw and grabbed onto the rabbit, refusing to let go. "Now, energy ball!"

Carnivine's mouth began to glow a pale shade of green as a small white ball grew inside the grass type's mouth. It then exploded upon contact with the trapped buneary, forcing carnivine to release her.

"Faint attack!" Cramer shouted. Carnivine rushed forward, disappearing and reappearing to buneary's left, slapping its vines at the rabbit as it was attempting to recover.

Lauren grit her teeth. She found it difficult to even get an attack in. Trying not to express a sign of panic, she directed buneary to use quick attack once more. Carnivine and Cramer played along, repeating the same strategy as before. However, Lauren switched the attack at the last second, calling for buneary to use thunderpunch.

The rabbit's fist lit up in a flurry of electric sparks as she feinted upwards with quick attack and landed her fist on carnivine's upper lip, sending it crashing into the ground. However, the bug catcher pokémon quickly recovered and spun around to face buneary, who had just landed back on the ground. Carnivine then used vine whip, wrapping its arms around buneary and bringing her in to finish the rabbit off with crunch.

"Buneary! Use thunderpunch!" Lauren shouted, but it was too late—the rabbit fell to the ground, defeated.

"Buneary is unable to battle, carnivine wins! The victory goes to Cramer!" Marian declared.

Lauren watched as buneary slowly got back up and hobbled over to her trainer. The entire time she looked down in disgrace. Lauren returned buneary, quietly muttering an apology to the pokéball before walking into the backroom.

"You alright?" Brittany asked, standing up and bringing Lauren into a hug.

"Yeah…buneary isn't, though," She said. "We just need to get stronger, that's all."

Brittany nodded, releasing Lauren from the hug but still holding her shoulders and looking her in the eyes. "And you will. I promise you that."

Lauren's eyes gleamed for a moment as she smiled appreciatively. "Kick ass, Brittany."

After a few more battles, it was Brittany's turn once more. She was participating in the second round of the Battle Round, which comprised of the four coordinators left in the contest. Her next match was against a trainer named Holden. After the monitor turned on, revealing the faces of both trainers and the yellow bars under their names, the battle was on.

"Tangela, you're up!" Brittany shouted, summoning the vine pokémon.

"Tangrowth, I choose you!" Holden shouted in a gravelly voice, sending out a massive pokémon covered in vines. In fact, it looked strangely similar to tangela, only far larger and with two elongated arms with red tips at the end. The arms extended down to its red feet, which looked more like large stubs than feet.

"What the-?" Brittany asked, looking down at tangela, who was equally confused. "Can you evolve into that?" The vine pokémon simply shrugged, clearly unsure. "Either way, let's win this! Tangela, use vine whip and stun spore!" Tangela nodded, unleashing two vines that were coated with yellow stun spores at its evolved form.

"Tangrowth, ancientpower!" Holden commanded. The larger vine pokémon conjured a row of medium-sized rocks out of seemingly nowhere, using them to block the two spore-covered vines. "Now, power whip!" Tangrowth then lowered the rocks and thrusted one of its long arms outwards, allowing it to extend across the field and smack tangela in the side of the body. The force of the attack caused tangela to lurch to the right, rolling across the stage.

"Tangela!" Brittany shouted. "Use mega drain!"

"Ancientpower!" Holden shouted once more. "Combine it with power whip!" Tangrowth nodded, combining both moves so that it was launching ancient rock after ancient rock at tangela. The smaller vine pokémon attempted to dodge each oncoming attack. He did for the first few, but eventually he got struck by one after another, quickly subdued by the combination of attacks.

Tangela fell forward, collapsing onto the stage in defeat.

"Tangela is unable to battle, tangrowth wins! The victory goes to Holden!" Marian shouted. Holden nodded, returning his pokémon while Brittany walked over and picked hers up.

"I'm sorry, tangela…" She said, standing up and walking into the backroom and then the lobby, where her friends were waiting for her. She looked at each of them with a half-frown, holding the vine pokémon in her arms. "Well, guess we both just have to keep training, I suppose," She finally said as they sat in the lobby chairs.

"Yeah, and I actually might have found just the place," JJ said, pulling a pamphlet out of the front pocket on his backpack. "The Seven Stars Restaurant is an 'indoor eatery' nearby here. Maybe we can go check that out?"

"Sounds good to me," Niko replied, looking at Lauren with a short smile. "It'll give all of us an opportunity to prepare for whatever competitions we have next."

Lauren and Brittany both nodded as they looked at each other, feeling more determined than ever to improve in the aftermath of their respective defeats.


	26. Seven stars for growth!

**Episode 26: Seven stars for growth!**

The evening following the contest, the group went to visit the Seven Stars Restaurant, which was located near the beach in Hotel Grand Lake. Each of them wanted to take the opportunity to battle with their pokémon in the wake of Brittany's and Lauren's respective defeats in the Lake Valor Pokémon Contest, in which buneary lost to a carnivine, and tangela lost to its evolved form, tangrowth.

Before they left for the restaurant, they chose to heal their pokémon at the hotel. In the meantime, JJ and Brittany looked up more information on tangrowth. "So, according to the pokédex, tangela can only evolve once he learns the move ancientpower," JJ mentioned as he studied tangrowth's entry.

"How in the hell am I supposed to do _that_?" Brittany asked quizzically. JJ simply shrugged, seemingly lost as well. The brunette sighed. "I feel like this is the only way for tangela to improve. After the battle he looked almost envious of tangrowth. I'm sure he believes that he needs to be one as well if it's ever going to get stronger."

Brittany sighed once again. She knew tangela has had an interest in getting stronger. This was made clear in Hoenn, when the vine pokémon wished to improve on its battling skills. Since then she has spent countless hours on their journeys getting him to improve on its moves and learn new ones. However, learning ancientpower seemed like a completely different challenge, and not quite something either she or tangela were up to. Leaning back in her booth, she looked up and let out a loud sigh.

"You can do it, Brittany," JJ said, looking sympathetic. "Look, let's spend some time before going to the Seven Stars working with tangela. Who knows, maybe he's a natural at it!"

Once tangela and the other pokémon returned from the Hotel Grand Lake's Pokémon Center, Brittany told her pokémon what she had learned. When she finally asked tangela if he showed any interest in evolving, the vine pokémon nodded.

"Well, if that's what you want to do, and if you think it will make you a stronger pokémon, then I will do everything I can to help you evolve. I promise," Brittany said, getting out of her booth. JJ followed suit, and the two turned to Niko and Lauren, who were sitting nearby eating french fries with their pokémon. "JJ and I will be back in a bit. Meet us at the Seven Stars?"

Niko and Lauren both nodded, waving to the three—plus JJ's togepi sitting in his arms—as they walked out of the hotel.

Brittany, JJ, tangela, and togepi walked down the steps of the hotel's front entrance towards the beach, which was glowing a cool yellow color as the sun was beginning to set in the west, albeit still an hour or so off. The four settled near a collection of rocks and boulders of varying sizes. JJ and togepi sat down as they watched the two attempting to learn ancientpower.

Brittany had to think for a moment. _How do I start this?_ She wondered. "Tangela, do you remember what ancientpower looks like?" The vine pokémon nodded as he looked up at his trainer. "Well, good. Admittedly, I don't know how it works, but let's try something out. Focus on that nearby rock and try to, err, use nature or something to lift it up."

Tangela looked to the rock his trainer pointed at, and then back to Brittany, still confused. Brittany continued trying to come up with ways to replicate the move in hopes of making it easier to conjure rocks out of nowhere. After half an hour, she gave up, instead going with JJ and their pokémon to the Seven Stars Restaurant.

The Seven Stars was just as fancy on the inside as the name suggested. There were over a dozen tables sitting scattered in the front half of the restaurant, with an ordinary-sized battlefield in the back with a scoreboard and a standing referee. People of all sorts of backgrounds came here, but only the wealthy were regulars. It didn't take long for the group—reunited moments before entering—to notice this, as the well-dressed individuals were the ones constantly on the battlefield. As waiter in fancy attire approached them and sat them at a table. As he was preparing to leave, Niko inquired about the battling.

"Oh, you'd like to participate in a battle?" He asked.

"Yes, all four of us, actually."

"Oh, I'm sorry sir, but we only allow double battles."

"Well, I don't actually mean all four of us in one battle. In two pairs, if that's fine."

"It certainly is fine. Of course, let me see what the waiting list looks like," He said, disappearing for a moment before returning with four drinks. "You're in luck sir, because the waiting list is currently empty. Would you and your friends like to sign up?" When Niko nodded, he pulled out a list and asked them to write their names down. Once they did so, he directed the first pair of them—Niko and Lauren—to the battlefield in the back of the room.

They then met their two competitors—a portly man with glasses and a tucked-in dress shirt named Eugene and a lovely looking young woman with a flowery green skirt and white dress shirt named Alison. The two pairs shook hands before walking to their respective sides and beginning the battle. Eugene sent out a feebas and Allison sent out a roselia, while Lauren summoned her buneary and Niko sent out piplup.

"Buneary, quick attack at feebas!" Lauren commanded.

"Piplup, peck on roselia!" Niko shouted. Both pokémon rushed forward towards their respective opponents. Buneary quickly turned her quick attack into a thunderpunch and slammed into the fish pokémon's face, launching it backwards. Meanwhile, piplup had a far more difficult time landed its attack, as the roselia was more agile than he had expected. The penguin pokémon pecked several times before finally landing one on his opponent, who retaliated with magical leaf, knocking piplup to the ground and causing him to slide a foot backwards.

"Buneary, jump kick feebas!" Lauren directed while Niko commanded piplup to use water pulse on roselia. "Niko…" She said, looking up at her partner. "You know that won't do much damage."

"Not the point," He said, winking at her. Piplup quickly got back up and conjured a glowing orb of water that he launched at roselia, who countered with another round of magical leaf, which caused the orb to burst. While the thorn pokémon was distracted by the move, piplup snuck underneath the attack and slammed its beak into roselia's chest, launching the grass type backwards. "Now piplup, use pound!"

The penguin pokémon thrust its flipper forward at roselia, slapping it across the face and knocking it down to the right. Piplup then looked up: buneary's foot was now frozen and she was on the ground, with feebas rushing forward to use tackle.

Piplup sprinted across the battlefield, his beak glowing a bright white as he lurched forward and collided with the fish pokémon, knocking it over and preventing it from hitting buneary. Piplup then got back up and used peck on buneary's frozen foot, breaking through the ice and allowing her to move again. Buneary stumbled back up, but with piplup's aid she finally got back on her feet.

Niko and Lauren smiled as they witnessed the teamwork between their two pokémon. Niko wrapped his arm around Lauren and pulled her in close.

"Now piplup, peck on roselia!"

"Buneary, finish feebas off with thunderpunch!" Lauren shouted, pulling some of her blue hair back behind her left ear.

Both pokémon rushed back to their respective opponents. Buneary was far more successful, slamming an electrically-charged fist down onto the fish, crashing it into the floor of the restaurant, defeated.

Meanwhile, piplup continued its onslaught of pecks towards roselia, who once more dodged each one before spinning around and releasing a magical leaf at him. Piplup was rocketed backwards from the force of the attack. As roselia approached its opponent, out of nowhere buneary leapt from the right and kicked the thorn pokémon in the side of the face, causing it to slide across to the left end of the battlefield, near the tables. Buneary then rushed at roselia with quick attack, leaning into a final thunderpunch to defeat the thorn pokémon.

"Feebas and roselia are both unable to battle, piplup and buneary win! The victory goes to Niko and Lauren!" The referee declared.

Niko and Lauren turned to each other and hugged tightly as their pokémon did the same, both delighted in their victory. Now, however, it was Brittany's and JJ's turn. The two—having just finished an appetizer, exchanged places on the battlefield with their friends.

Their opponents were a middle-aged couple in old-style dress clothes. A pokéball sat atop the man's cane as he tapped it onto the floor, releasing his chatot. Meanwhile, the woman opened her purse and gently picked out a pokéball of her own, summoning a pokémon called purugly, which looked like an enormously bulky pink and white cat. In turn, Brittany summoned tangela and JJ summoned umbreon.

"Umbreon, use faint attack on chatot!" JJ commanded.

"Tangela, let's try ancientpower!" Brittany said calmly. Tangela nodded as he closed its eyes, trying to conjure the rocks. After several moments of waiting, nothing happened. Brittany heard the old woman—a socialite named Rebecca—giggle under her breath.

"Oh, that's a riot young girl. Purugly, dear, use slash!"

The purugly charged at tangela with a surprising amount of speed, leaping forward with its claws extended. The massive feline landed on tangela, scratching at its vine-covered body. Tangela winced from the attack before grabbing onto purugly with vine whip and tripping it. Purugly then disappeared and reappeared behind tangela to use faint attack, pushing it forward forcefully. Tangela tripped on its own boot and crashed into the ground, eliciting another giggle from Rebecca.

Brittany frowned. "Hey, stop laughing!" She shouted back.

"Oh, dear, my apologies. I've just never seen such a clumsy pokémon like that before!"

"You obviously haven't seen many, then. Tangela, use ancientpower!"

Tangela turned to purugly and attempted the move again, this time straining itself. However, this only exhausted him more, and when Rebecca was done laughing softly again she commanded purugly to use fury swipes on tangela. The tiger cat pokémon charged forward once more, claws extended, as it swiped and slashed as tangela, who did little to retaliate.

Meanwhile, umbreon was slapping chatot around with faint attack, as it was the only move he could use against the flying type. It seemed effective enough, JJ thought, as he tried to keep an eye on Brittany and tangela as well.

"Umbreon, let's finish it off with one final faint attack!" JJ commanded. While the attack hit, chatot managed to start glowing as it was surrounded with feathers. "What…?"

"It's called roost, my dear boy," The middle-aged man—Leonardo—said calmly, in a stereotypical wealthy voice. "It heals bird pokémon."

"Ah, I see. Umbreon, use faint attack again, I guess," He said as the moonlight pokémon continued to teleport around the battlefield with faint attack.

Tangela crashed onto the floor once more after taking another beating from fury swipes. He tried to use ancientpower once more on its own command, rather than Brittany's. When it didn't work, Rebecca half-smiled and commanded purugly to use faint attack.

Tangela was launched to his left, in umbreon's direction, and ended up colliding with the dark type, causing them both to land hard on the restaurant's floor.

"You might want to train some more before you come here to battle, dear," Rebecca said to Brittany as chatot use hyper voice to subdue umbreon and tangela. "And here's a tip: don't come into battle without having mastered a move, mmk?"

Brittany blushed with fury. She felt embarrassed and hurt. But her feeling paled in comparison to tangela, who got up, shot purugly a nasty look, and ran out of the Seven Stars as fast as he could. "Tangela!" Brittany shouted, running after her pokémon.

JJ returned umbreon and also shot a nasty look at Leonardo and Rebecca before sitting down across from Niko and Lauren. "What the hell…" He said exasperatedly, holding his hands on both of his cheeks.

"That wasn't cool of them—Brittany's just here to practice!"

"Yeah, but they clearly don't know that. Bah, I feel so terrible."

"Why?" Niko asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because I convinced Brittany to do this in the first place. And I told her about tangela's evolution. I put it all in her head."

"Oh shut it, JJ," Niko said, his face contorting into a glare. "You did nothing. Didn't tangela _want_ to evolve in the first place?" JJ nodded. "And didn't Brittany _want_ to help him evolve?" JJ nodded again. "I don't see any mention of you in there. You did fine. Let's just finish dinner. Brittany and tangela need some alone time, I think."

* * *

Brittany found tangela down by the water, the moonlight illuminating it. The vine pokémon was staring at the rocks they both practiced on earlier. This time, tangela was moving them, but with little success.

"You've never been the kind of pokémon to give up easily," She said, attracting tangela's attention. "I remember that time in Lilycove City, when we competed in a contest together. You hadn't had much battling experience up until that point, and so in a way we kind of took a risk. I know I did, but you were itching to give contests a try, just like I was.

"And we won because of you. I got my second contest ribbon, all because of you, tangela. And it's because you never once gave up."

Tangela looked up at Brittany, who was now sitting on the rock that JJ had previously. The moonlight illuminated certain features of her face over others, but enough that tangela could see his trainer.

"Look, we've never had the same sort of connection that some of the other guys have with their pokémon, simply because you don't battle as often. But you try just as hard, and win just as often, if not more. I caught you almost on a whim back in Fuchsia City three years ago, but I certainly don't regret it," She smiled sincerely, "And I don't want you to get down on yourself because of a fat ugly cat and some prissy women. We've beaten prissy before, right?" She asked in reference to Madeleine. Tangela's eyes fired up with determination, and he nodded. "Now, let's beat them this time, and show her what we're made of."

Tangela nodded fiercely before turning to the rocks again. Closing its eyes, tangela gathered up its energy, trying to make mental contact with the forces of nature hidden within the rocks in front of it. Suddenly—and seemingly out of nowhere—the rocks began to move. Tangela opened its eyes with wonder as he was able to carry the rocks slowly through the air. He let them drop near the edge of the ocean before turning back to Brittany with wonder. The brunette simply smiled and motioned him to continue.

The vine pokémon did so, this time doing it again. And again. And again. Eventually, tangela tried to use the move without the rocks. Closing its eyes once more, tangela summoned the forces of nature and out of nowhere rocks with a purple edge to them appeared in front of him. Opening his eyes once more, he gasped with wonder.

Brittany sighed with relief until a bright white glow encompassed tangela, lighting up the entire beach in the light of evolution.

* * *

Niko, Lauren, and JJ had just gotten their check and were about to leave when they saw Brittany storm back in.

"Brittany, what's-?" Niko asked as his friend nodded at him and quickly moved past him, storming towards Rebecca's table.

"I demand a rematch!" She said, staring down at the socialite. Rebecca looked up with a curious expression.

"Oh? Here for more embarrassment, dear? It's not good for you, I can assure you of that."

"The only woman here that'll be embarrassed is you," Brittany said, tangela's safari ball in her hand. Rebecca eyed the pokéball for a moment before looking up with a half-smile.

"Fine, I'll bite. Would you like this to be a single or double battle?"

"Whatever you prefer?" Brittany said in a low, and oddly frightening, tone. Niko could see she was either pissed off or more determined than she had ever been. Thinking more on it, he determined that "vengeful" was more apt to describe her expression.

"Single battle it is. Leonardo, dear, hold my purse," She said, picking out purugly's pokéball from it. The waiter nodded as she got up and nodded to him as well. The last battle of the evening had just finished, but the waiter made an exception in this case. Rebecca took her spot on one end of the field; Brittany on the other. "Purugly, dear, you're up!"

Brittany gripped her safari ball. "Tangrowth, I choose you!"

Niko, Lauren, and JJ audibly gasped as they saw the massive collection of forest green vines erupt onto the field, towering over everyone else in the restaurant. Even Rebecca looked slightly intimidated, but hardly showed it.

"Purugly, use slash!"

"Tangrowth, ancientpower!" Brittany shouted, thrusting her hand forward commandingly. Tangrowth cried out as he raised both of his elongated arms into the air, summoning the ancient rocks from thin air, tossing them all at once at the tiger cat pokémon. Purugly collided with each one in turn, knocking it back onto the ground. "Now, use vine whip and stun spore!"

The vine pokémon extended both of its arms—coated in yellow stun spores—out towards purugly, not only slapping it across the face but also temporarily paralyzing it.

"Now, ancientpower once again!" Brittany shouted, extending both of her arms out to the sides, the fury obvious in her tone. Tangrowth cried out as well, repeating its new move and overwhelming his opponent with more ancient rocks.

Rebecca looked in shock at the newfound power of tangrowth, particularly as it related to her own pokémon. Staring up at Brittany, her face instantly soured. "You! You planned this, didn't you? Just to embarrass me!"

Brittany shook her head, bemused. "No? It was never my intention to embarrass you. But you did that to me, and tangrowth and I wanted to show you that we're not to be messed with. No one insults my pokémon or tries to give me 'advice' or whatever it was that you said. My name is Brittany, and I'm a Pokémon Coordinator from Vermillion City. I placed in the Top 8 In the Hoenn Grand Festival, and _no one_ talks bad about my pokémon!"

Rebecca took a step back. "Fine. I apologize, Brittany. You've shown me the error of my ways. Even in old age, we all make mistakes. I'll be more careful with my tongue next time."

Brittany seemed to calm down again. "Thank you. Tangrowth and I appreciate it," She said. The vine pokémon turned to her and placed an arm on her shoulder. Brittany rubbed it and smiled. "Thanks, buddy."

Tangrowth smiled happily, petting purugly's back as the feline pokémon came up to apologize as well.

The four trainers exited the Seven Stars Restaurant, still in awe at Brittany's rematch. JJ in particular was pleased, having seen the difficulties that Brittany and tangrowth had had earlier in their first attempt on the beach. Lauren and Niko were equally happy, but in a different way. It both seemed to fire them up as they looked towards their next destination—Pastoria City, where both would compete for their fifth Sinnoh gym badge.

As they fell asleep on their last night in Hotel Grand Lake, they all felt a certain sense of accomplishment from the day and determination to improve in the future.


	27. Brine and Battle!

**Episode 27: Brine and battle!**

 _"_ _Poison jab," The black-haired man shouted to his amphibious pokémon. Toxicroak rushed forward, the middle claw on its right hand glowing a bright purple color. The attack slammed into piplup, knocking it down. "Pathetic. You're better than this, piplup," He said, walking over to the small water type, tapping its back with his boots. "Get back up, we're doing this again. I said: GET UP!"_

 _He once more tapped piplup, only this time it was harder, and looked more like a kick. Piplup yelped out, hurt by the force of the boot…_

"Niko?" Lauren's soft voice echoed through Niko's mind. "Niko…are you okay?"

Niko opened his eyes to see Lauren's face half-illuminated by the moonlight beaming through the windows. Squinting to get a better look, he hesitated before nodding. "Yeah, I'm alright. Why?"

"You were shaking and shouting in your sleep."

"I was? I…was…" Niko said, laying his head back down on the pillow before looking up at the ceiling and beginning to close his eyes. He then felt a rumbling and shuffling of a body to his right, and saw Lauren lying next to him. "What're you doing?"

"I thought maybe you could use some company if you're having nightmares. Don't worry, we'll fight them together," She said as she shuffled her body through the bed to meet Niko's. Suddenly getting a warm feeling through his body, he reached his arm to meet Lauren's right shoulder and pulled her in close, letting her fall asleep resting on his chest.

* * *

The following morning, the group got up and had a quick breakfast before heading out into Pastoria City. It had been a couple of days since the events at Lake Valor and the Hotel Grand Lake. Most of that time was spent walking, although Niko and Lauren did get some training in during that time. With the knowledge that Crasher Wake—the gym leader of Pastoria City—is a water type user, they spent much of their time working with turtwig, luxio, roselia, and buneary. Niko in particular wanted luxio to learn thunder fang, a move that it naturally learned and didn't seem to have much difficulty getting down. He also spent some time looking in his pokédex for some information on the move energy ball, which he saw Cramer's carnivine use during the previous contest. Him and turtwig finally started working on the move the day before they reached Pastoria City, and so Niko hardly expected the grass type to have mastered the move before the gym battle.

Meanwhile, Lauren was focusing on getting buneary to increase its speed, which led the little rabbit to learn the move agility. This helped it land thunderpunches quicker, which she would need to match whatever Crasher Wake threw at her. Roselia, on the other hand, continued to practice its moveset as it was at the time, also focusing on speed and—in the case of bullet seed—accuracy.

Overall, both trainers felt good heading into their fifth gym battle. Before they went to challenge Crasher Wake, however, the four went to sit by the port in the southern part of the city. For a while they all just watched the boats coming in and out of the port. Niko wondered what kinds of places the boats went, and for what purpose.

After a while, they all got up and walked to the gym, which was on the western end of town. The Pastoria Gym was a tall, circular blue building with a large pokéball symbol directly under the roof. Walking through the doors, Niko and his friends saw a pool the size of a battlefield, with flat white platforms of varying sizes scattered around. _This is a lot similar to Juan's gym, back in Hoenn_ , Niko thought to himself. As he looked around, he didn't see anyone immediately. Then, from an entrance in the backroom, a tall, bulky, shirtless man walked out.

"HELLO! I AM CRASHER WAKE, AND I AM THE GYM LEADER OF PASTORIA CITY!" He shouted. The gym leader was towered over ordinary men, and wore a blue and white mask that wrapped around his eyes and over his mouth, with fin-like plates jutting out at an angle on both sides. He wore orange and blue cuffs on his wrists, and pants of the same shade and color, with orange boots to complete his luchador look.

"Hello, I'm Niko from Pallet Town, and this is Lauren from Canalave City. We're both here to challenge you for your gym badge!"

Crasher Wake smiled with joy. "Ahah! Finally, another challenger! I don't get many of those! Ahahaha! Now, who would like to go first?" He asked, stepped up onto a gold platform on the opposite end of the pool. Niko stepped forward, as Lauren had during Maylene's battle. "Allllright! Niko, is it? Three-on-three pokémon battle. Are. You. Ready. For. THIS!?" He shouted, thrusting his fists into the air victoriously.

Niko laughed quietly. He found Wake to be an entertaining man. It was rare to see a gym leader—much less any ordinary trainer—to be as enthusiastic as he was. Pulling out a pokéball, he and Wake waited until a referee was present on the sidelines in the middle of the field, right under the stands to Niko's right, where his friends usually resided. Once the referee explained the rules, Wake and Niko summoned their first pokémon.

"Gyarados, on the water!" Wake shouted.

"Luxio, you're up!" Niko commanded, summoning his spark pokémon. "Use charge!"

"Gyarados, twister!" Wake directed. The atrocious pokémon then brought its tail up out of the water and began spinning in clockwise, whipping up a fast-moving gust of wind that it launched across the pool, tossing over the white platforms in its way.

"Luxio, use spark!" Niko commanded. The electric type stood still, releasing a stream of electricity at the twister, creating an explosion from the resulting collision of attacks. "Now, jump forward and use thunder fang!"

Luxio leapt across the platforms, hardly missing a beat as he got closer to gyarados, whom Wake told to use a bite attack of its own. Gyarados' head dove down to intercept luxio on one of the platforms, but it was too quick, which allowed the spark pokémon to jump onto gyarados and bite down onto the dark blue crest atop its head, releasing a surge of electricity through his teeth.

The atrocious pokémon roared out loud, shaking the gym slightly. It attempted to shake luxio off, but Niko commanded the pokémon to maintain its spot.

"Luxio, now use spark again!" Niko shouted. Luxio nodded, releasing more electricity from his fur, which shocked gyarados to its core. The water dragon then fell to its right side in defeat. Before it crashed into the water, luxio leapt off and onto the closest platform. "Yes, luxio! You did it!" Niko said, looking on with a prideful smile. Luxio turned around and half-smiled back, suddenly feeling confident.

"Gyarados is unable to battle, luxio wins! Leader Wake will now send out his next pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Quagsire, on the water!" Wake shouted, throwing a pokéball onto the closest platform. Out of it popped an odd-looking amphibious pokémon with several plain features. Quagsire was light blue with a dark blue back; a wide mouth and tiny, beady black eyes; its tail was a dark blue fin.

 _Quagsire is a ground type, right?_ Niko thought, having remembered seeing one at one point during his travels in Johto. "Luxio, return. Rest, buddy, I might need you later. Turtwig, you're up!"

"Ahah, a turtwig. Alright, Niko, let's see what you've got," Wake said with a smirk. "Quagsire, mud shot!"

"Turtwig, jump aside and use razor leaf!" Niko commanded. The tiny leaf pokémon leapt across to the closest platform before launching a flurry of razor sharp green leaves, which successfully landed on quagsire. "Now, use absorb!"

Turtwig's seedling began to grow a bright green as he attempted to drain quagsire's energy. However, Wake and his pokémon took the opportunity to attack turtwig with a mud shot before jumping into the water to get closer.

"Razor leaf again!" Niko commanded. Turtwig aimed his head downwards towards the water and released a flurry of sharp leaves at quagsire. However, the leaves didn't seem to be effective as they got soggy when they met with the water in the pool. Quagsire then jumped out of the water in front of turtwig.

"Use ice punch!" Wake commanded.

"Turtwig, dodge!" Niko shouted. Luckily, the tiny leaf pokémon managed to escape from the attack, only he slipped and nearly fell into the water. While on his side, quagsire turned and used ice punch a second time. However, turtwig's seedling began to glow and quagsire reeled back instantly, its health being sapped by the absorb attack. "Now, use razor leaf!"

Turtwig—now with more energy thanks to quagsire—stood back up and released a flurry of leaves up close, knocking quagsire backwards into the water below them.

"Quagsire is unable to battle, turtwig wins!" The referee declared. "Wake will now use his third and final pokémon!"

"Floatzel, on the water!" Wake commanded. Out of his final pokéball came an orange weasel-looking pokémon with a split tail and a long yellow tubular sac running around its neck and down both sides of its body. On its heard was an orange crest that angled backwards, and on the sides of its arms were blue fins. Curious, Brittany, Lauren, and JJ all looked up this pokémon:

" _Floatzel, the sea weasel pokémon. Water type. It is a common sight around fishing ports. It is known to rescue people and carry off prey._ "

"Alright turtwig, we got this," Niko said, balling his hand into a fist. "Now, use razor leaf!"

"Floatzel, aqua jet!" Wake commanded. The sea weasel jumped into the air, its body coated in a layer of blue water. The water type rushed at turtwig, knocking it off of its platform and into the water. "Now, use ice fang!"

"Turtwig, bite!" Niko commanded as he watched his grass type struggle underwater with floatzel, whose ice suddenly began to glow a bright sky blue color, giving it an icy look. Both pokémon bit down onto each other. However, turtwig quickly struggled with maintaining his attack, and gave up as he allowed floatzel to launch him out of the water with ice fang. While turtwig was still in the air, floatzel shot out of the pool using aqua jet and intercepted the tiny leaf pokémon, sending it crashing onto one of the platforms below.

"Floatzel, finish it off with brine!" Wake commanded. As turtwig slowly got up and used razor leaf, floatzel—still in the air—released its coat of water from aqua jet towards turtwig. The grass type felt a rush of salty water splash against his face, knocking him over and onto the platform while floatzel hit the surface of the pool, hit by the razor leaf.

"Turtwig is unable to battle, floatzel wins! Niko will send out his next pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Return, turtwig," Niko said, satisfied with his pokémon's performance. "Now, luxio, let's go!"

Wake smirked a little. "Wise choice, Niko. Floatzel, aqua jet!"

"Luxio, use charge," Niko said calmly, waiting for floatzel to get closer. When it did, luxio used spark on his opponent, releasing the charged electricity within his fur. The resulting explosion blasted floatzel backwards in the air, launching it across the water-filled battlefield. Floatzel crashed onto the platform closest to Wake. It struggled to get back up, but did so all the same, glaring at luxio. "Luxio, use thunder fang," Niko said simply, thrusting his hand forward. The spark pokémon rushed across the pool, jumping across each platform until he reached floatzel. His fangs electrified and baring, luxio bit down onto floatzel.

"Use ice fang!" Wake commanded.

"Luxio, don't give in buddy! You can do it!" Niko shouted, hoping that the electric type could keep up the attacks. Both pokémon bit down on one another, but eventually floatzel gave in, dropping to the ground with luxio still on top of it, biting into the sea weasel's arm.

"Floatzel is unable to battle, luxio wins! The victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!" The referee declared.

Niko jumped for joy. "Luxio, you did it! You did it!" He said as the spark pokémon leaped across the pool and jumped into Niko, knocking him over. The two lay there for a moment. "I'm proud of you, buddy. You really showed your stuff today."

Luxio nodded fiercely, looking prideful as well. He got off his trainer as Lauren walked out of the stands to congratulate them. Niko briefly kissed her forehead before walking with luxio into the stands, where they would watch Lauren's battle with Wake.

Wake went back into the entrance from where he came from, presumably to heal his pokémon quickly. Minutes later, he returned, ready to continue. "Allllright then! Lauren! I accept your challenge!" He pulled out a pokéball and when the referee explained the rules of the battle, he began. "Gyarados, on the water!"

"Buneary, let's go!" Lauren shouted. "Use agility!"

"Gyarados, waterfall!" Wake commanded. While buneary was leaping across platforms, moving closer to the atrocious pokémon, the latter conjured a wave of water from above it and manipulated it to crash down onto the rabbit. Buneary, crushed under the force of the water, slipped off of her platform and dropped into the pool. "Use bite!"

Gyarados dove into the water and swam at buneary, mouth wide open. It was about to clamp down on the rabbit pokémon when it quickly swam above the water dragon and used jump kick to slam gyarados' head into the bottom of the pool before reaching the surface of the water and jumping out onto a nearby platform.

"Use twister on the platform its on!" Wake directed. Gyarados' tail began to swirl in a clockwise motion, conjuring a tornado of water underneath the pool. The platform buneary was on shot directly into the air. Once gyarados' head popped out, Lauren seized her chance.

"Buneary, drop down and use thunderpunch!" She shouted, pulling back some of her blue hair behind her ear. The rabbit pokémon dove off of its platform, its fist lighting up with electricity. Gyarados then opened its mouth in anticipation of using bite, but once more, the atrocious pokémon failed to bite down, as buneary's thunderpunch hit gyarados' dark blue crest, knocking it backwards into the water below, buneary following it. She landed on the edge of the pool, looking down at the defeated gyarados behind her.

"Gyarados is unable to battle, buneary wins! Wake will now send out his second pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Quagsire, on the water!" Wake shouted, summoning the amphibious-looking pokémon. "Use mud shot!"

"Block it with jump kick!" Lauren directed. Buneary leapt off of the edge of the pool and towards the muddy sphere hurdling towards her. Extending her foot out, buneary collided with the mud shot, dealing little damage to her and also repelling the attack. Buneary dropped into the water, waiting for quagsire to come for her.

"Use water pulse!" Wake cried out. The water fish pokémon conjured a glowing orb of water in front of its mouth and launched it as buneary, who ducked under the water just in time. She began slowly swimming onto a platform.

"Buneary, use agility and jump kick!" Lauren commanded. The rabbit launched off of her platform, leaping across each one in turn before landing on the one directly in front of her opponent. As she was about to land her foot into quagsire's face, Wake commanded his pokémon to use ice punch. Fist met foot, resulting in both pokémon repelling one another in opposite directions. Buneary shot backwards through the air in an arc-like motion. Before she hit the ground, Lauren returned her to her pokéball.

"Ah, solid timing, Lauren. That might've defeated buneary, had it hit a platform. Choose your next pokémon."

Lauren nodded. "Roselia, you're up!" She shouted, summoning her grass type. Wake smirked. "Use magical leaf!"

"Quagsire, block it with magical leaf!" Wake shouted. However, the water fish pokémon was unable to, as the magical leaf moved around the pulsating ball of water and slammed into quagsire, knocking it backwards into the water behind it. However, the water pulse also hit roselia, who nearly fell off of her own platform. "Quagsire, get back up and use yawn!"

Lauren grit her teeth. "Roselia, bullet seed!"

Roselia pointed her red rose-hand at quagsire and fired off a series of quick-moving bullets, all of which hit quagsire in the face. Nonetheless, the water fish pokémon yawned loudly, forcing roselia to yawn as well. Once more, roselia launched a series of magical leaves at quagsire. The water fish pokémon, who was unable to dodge the attack, took it and fell forward onto its platform, defeated.

"Quagsire is unable to battle, roselia wins! Wake will now use his third and final pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Floatzel, on the water!" Wake shouted, summoning his ace weasel. "Use aqua jet!"

"Roselia, use—oh, no," Lauren said as roselia fell backwards onto her platform, fast asleep. The blue-haired trainer watched as the orange sea weasel slammed into the tiny thorn pokémon, knocking it off of the ledge of the platform and into the water.

"Floatzel, ice fang!" Wake shouted. The water type dove into the water and, with its icy fangs bared, grabbed onto roselia's thin, stringy arm and tossed it out of the water and onto a nearby platform, similar to how it dealt with turtwig in the previous battle. Floatzel then, under Wake's command, used aqua jet to get back into the air. "Finish it off with brine!"

Using its watery aqua jet coat, floatzel sent a wave of salty water at roselia, which woke up the thorn pokémon, but also left it significantly weaker. As roselia was about to get back up, floatzel dropped down upon it with a final aqua jet, defeating it.

"Roselia is unable to battle, floatzel wins!" The referee declared.

"Buneary, you're up again!" Lauren shouted. _I really hope she—we—can pull this off, though. She's already hurt enough, and that floatzel is fast._ She said before gritting her teeth. _But we're faster._ "Buneary, use agility and thunderpunch!"

Buneary nodded, rushing across the platforms as she did for both gyarados and quagsire. As she got closer, her fist lit up with electric sparks. Floatzel created an aqua jet and quickly dodge the attack before turning back around and rushing towards buneary's back.

"Buneary, behind you!" Lauren shouted. The rabbit pokémon instantly lurched around, its fist still electrified. It then slammed the thunderpunch into floatzel as she got hit with the move as well, knocking her backwards and into the water. "Now, use quick attack!"

"Aqua jet!" Wake shouted. Both pokémon leapt at each other head on. "Combine it with ice fang!"

"Thunderpunch!" Lauren cried out, thrusting her fist forward. Buneary's hand lit up with a surge of electricity as she socked floatzel in the chest while the sea weasel gripped onto her other hand with his icy teeth. Both pokémon landed on the platform, with floatzel—the bigger pokémon—leaning over buneary, giving the impression that it was overpowering its opponent. "Buneary…! You can do it! I believe you can! Fight through the pain!" She shouted.

Buneary furrowed her eyebrows and moved her fist deeper into floatzel's chest, eventually overpowering the sea weasel and sending it hurdling off of the platform.

"Now use agility and jump kick!" Lauren shouted, kicking the air in front of her. Buneary jumped off of the platform with incredible speed before dropping down into the pool, right above floatzel. Before the water type could react, it felt the force of buneary's foot crashing down on its chest, sending both pokémon deep into the pool.

Buneary made it out of the water first. Moments later, floatzel appeared, crawling onto a platform and fainting.

"Floatzel is unable to battle, buneary wins! The victory goes to Lauren from Canalave City!" The referee declared.

A tear formed in Lauren's eye. Buneary turned and leapt across platforms before jumping into her trainer's arms.

"You did so great, buneary! You fought all three of Wake's pokémon, and didn't give up a single time! I'm so proud of you…" Buneary closed her eyes and smiled, leaning into Lauren's chest and hugging her trainer as tightly as she could.

Lauren then felt Niko's warm hand clasp onto her shoulder. Leaning back, she fell against him. They congratulated each other while the four waited for Wake to walk to the other end of the pool.

"Niko! Lauren! You two performed excellently against me! I would LOVE to continue battling, but we all have other things to attend to, I'm sure. Now, here," He said, pulling out two circular, blue and silver badges. "I award each of you the Fen Badge, as proof of your victory here today."

Niko and Lauren both picked the badges from Wake's palm, looked at each other, and smiled warmly.

"Now, get a move on, kids! You've got so much more of the world to see!"

"Thanks for the battle, Crasher Wake," Niko said as they were about to leave. "Oh, and Maylene told us to tell you hello."

Wake's eyes glimmered for a moment before he blinked. "Ah, yes! Maylene! My favorite gym leader! Well, I must go and visit Veilstone City sometime soon, then! And train with her! Bye now!"

Niko and Lauren both nodded, and walked out of the gym with their friends. It was still the early afternoon when they exited the gym, and the four went to grab lunch near the port while deciding on their next course of action.


	28. Bibarel's advice

**Episode 28: Bibarel's advice**

"So, there are three major gyms left in Sinnoh," JJ began, much to his own surprise. To him, it only felt like he, Brittany, and Niko had arrived in the region a day ago. "Which is surprising," He finally said. "They are in Canalave City, Snowpoint City, and Sunyshore City."

"Well, which one is closer?" Niko asked.

"Sunyshore. Canalave is far to the west, Snowpoint far to the north, and Sunyshore far to the east, where we are. But…the Pokémon League location is usually just north of Sunyshore, so maybe we should save that one for last," JJ said, looking at the map.

"Maybe Canalave first, then? If we're far to the south, it will take a while to get to Snowpoint," Niko said, eyeing the map upside down. "Lauren, how does that sound?"

"Err, fine, I suppose," She admitted.

"Just fine? That's your home. Shouldn't you be excited?"

"Oh, yeah! Yeah, I am excited!" She said, putting on a grin. Niko saw through it, but chose not to press her on the topic. At least, not in public. "Anyways, the gym leader there—Byron—is pretty tough. He uses steel types."

"Great…" Niko said, remembering his battle against another steel type gym leader, Jasmine, back in Kanto. "That'll be great."

Lauren was the one eyeing him carefully this time. "Are you sure _you're_ okay with this?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, of course I am!" Niko said in a mock defensive tone. "Anyways, what would be the quickest way there?"

"Well," JJ said, looking at the map. "If we got west and north along route 212, we'll hit Hearthome City. From there, we continue west some more until we hit Oreburgh City, then Jubilife City, and then across a large river to Canalave City."

"Oh, and maybe Jubilife City is having another Pokémon Contest!" Brittany finally said. She had been quiet throughout most of their lunch, watching the other three speak amongst themselves.

"Hopefully!" Lauren said with an earnest smile. "And you're sure to win it this time!" Brittany nodded in agreement.

"Then it's settled! Off to Canalave!" Niko said with a clap. The other three nodded in agreement, and after lunch they went to get more supplies for the road ahead. This time, Niko found a mango drink to share with his pokémon, while JJ bought some more berries and other supplies with which he would cook up food for the pokémon.

* * *

Their first day on the road towards Canalave City began in the rain. Like their journey to Veilstone City, the group found themselves wading through more rain. Only this time, it was in a swampy environment, with the ground transformed into soft mud. Occasionally one of them would slip, which certainly looked entertaining for the others, but not for the victim. JJ seemed to take it the worst, as he was also trying to carry togepi, and him falling in the mud could have seriously hurt the baby pokémon, in his view.

Eventually they found a small inlet in a large hill just off the beaten, muddy path, from which they could rest for the night. JJ—still feeling the slight pain in his rear from the slip he took earlier, set to cooking dinner with growlithe and azumarill as his assistants, while the other three set up the rest of their small camp and trained.

Niko and Lauren took turns with their pokémon, due to limited space, while Brittany stood out in the rain with hers. She wanted to work with wartortle and spheal in preparation for their next contest in Jubilife City. Wartortle was trying to learn a move called aqua tail, and the brunette figured that he might have some success trying to learn it in the rain. Meanwhile, spheal was simply practicing his own moves, trying to get ice ball and aurora beam to produce brighter and stronger performances.

Lauren was trying to help roselia learn a couple of different moves. One of them was grasswhistle, where the thorn pokémon would practice using a small blade of grass and blow into it, creating a soothing melody with the intention of putting pokémon to sleep. The other move was toxic spikes, which proved to be far more difficult.

Niko, on the other hand, was focusing specifically on turtwig this time. The tiny leaf pokémon was attempting to learn the move energy ball, which took more time than he had anticipated. They spent much of that night trying to get it to work, practicing up until midnight when Niko collapsed on his sleeping bag.

"Turtwig, let's just give it another try some other time, alright?" Niko said. "Come on, go to bed," He said. Turtwig nodded and walked over to his trainer, setting down next to Niko and falling asleep.

However, in the middle of the night, after the rain had stopped, turtwig got back up and walked out into the swampy fields to continue trying. Turning back to look at Niko, the tiny leaf hesitated, but continued walking away.

He walked for several minutes before reaching the edge of a lake. Sitting on his hind legs, turtwig observed the environment around him. It wasn't as muddy or swamp-like as before. No, it was more serene than he had imagined. Eventually, he got back up and made another attempt at energy ball.

The way niko was imagining it, turtwig would simply call upon the forces of nature to provide it with energy, similar to how tangela learned ancientpower. Turtwig tried this a few times, but ultimately failed each time. It continued doing this until it heard a rustling in the bushes behind it. A bibarel popped out and waddled over to turtwig.

The two pokémon looked at each other for a moment before turtwig continued with his training, the beaver pokémon watching intently. After a few more unsuccessful tries, bibarel tapped turtwig on the back to get his attention.

"Bi. Biba, biba bibarel," The beaver said. _What're you trying to do?_

Turtwig frowned a little. _I'm trying to learn a new move, what does it look like?_

 _Nothing at all_ , Bibarel replied. _What move?_

 _My trainer calls it 'energy ball,' whatever that means_. Turtwig replied, eying bibarel with suspicion.

 _Oh!_ Bibarel said with surprise. _I saw something using that once. Looked kinda like you, actually, but just a little bigger and with bushes on his back. Somehow, the bushes began glowing when he used the move. I don't know why, but they did. Maybe try that._

 _But I don't have bushes on my back…right?_ Turtwig asked, unsure of what to make of bibarel's advice.

 _Then try using that thing on your head._

 _Oh, you mean the seedling?_ Bibarel nodded. _Alright, here goes nothing._ Turtwig closed his eyes, trying to concentrate as much energy into his seedling as possible. He suddenly felt a rush of power coursing through his body. Opening his mouth, he launched a small sphere of pure energy from his mouth. _Woah…_

Bibarel nodded approvingly. _That's it! Try it again!_ Turtwig nodded, doing it once more, only trying to hold in the energy for a moment before releasing it. This wasn't as successful, but he was producing the energy ball. _Good, good!_

 _Say,_ Turtwig said, _why are you here?_

Bibarel laughed. _Just heard something near my home. Wanted to make sure you weren't something dangerous._

Turtwig smiled. _Well, I appreciate the help. And my trainer, Niko, certainly will too_.

 _Well, you're clearly ambitious, that's for sure. Your trainer will appreciate that more than you realize. Trust me._ Bibarel then got back on all fours and waddled away, back into the bushes towards its home, leaving turtwig there to continue practicing.

* * *

"Hey, Niko," Lauren asked as the two were sitting down for breakfast, "Have you ever heard of a move called 'dream eater?'"

"Yeah, why?" Niko asked, his mouth half-full of bacon.

"Okay, first off, don't do that," Lauren said in a scolding tone. "And second, well, haunter can learn it, but I'm not quite sure how to teach a move like that. Have you ever had to?"

Niko nodded. "Yeah, with my noctowl. It wasn't easy at all, just ask Brittany and JJ. They saw how long it took us to figure it out."

Brittany nodded. "Noctowl struggled a lot with it, but maybe that's because it's also a bird, not a ghost. Haunter might have an easier time with it," Brittany then looked around in slight confusion, provoking Niko and Lauren to study her curiously. "Where's turtwig? Wasn't he sleeping with you last night, Niko?"

 _Oh, no…_ Niko said. _I thought I put him in his pokéball last night. Oh no. Oh no no no._ "I don't know…I forgot that I left him out to sleep with me. Where the hell did he go?" Niko got up and started looking around the immediate area before summoning staravia from his pokéball. "Hey buddy, turtwig's gone missing, can you help us find him?"

Staravia nodded, flying off into the gray, cloudy sky above in search of his teammate. Meanwhile, Niko summoned luxio and piplup and asked them to help in their search. Lauren and Brittany also went into the forest to look for turtwig, leaving JJ to tend to the campsite.

Niko rushed through the forest, trying not to slip on any undried mud underneath him. Weaving through trees and over various-sized rocks, he eventually reached a clearing near a river where he found a large, green and orange pokémon with two large bushes sleeping by the river. Pulling out his pokédex, he examined the pokémon, who looked oddly familiar:

" _Grotle, the grove pokémon. Grass type. It knows where pure water wells up. It carries fellow pokémon there on its back_."

Niko watched as the grotle got up. It was rather large, roughly half Niko's height. It had green skin with an orange shell that ran from the tip of its short tail along its back and over its head. On each side of its back were two medium-sized bushes with a brown streak that looked like dirt running in between them. Oddly enough, when the grotle sat up and looked over at Niko, it seemed to recognize him.

The grotle ran over and tackled Niko to the ground, much to his fear and surprise. "Woah! What the hell!? What do you want?"

He suddenly heard laughing behind him. Craning his neck behind and above him, he saw Lauren, Brittany, staravia, piplup, and luxio all standing there, looking at him.

"Niko…that's turtwig!" She said, holding out her pokédex to show turtwig's evolution line.

Niko looked up at grotle, who slowly got off of him, and then back at the pokédex. "But…how?"

Grotle turned to a nearby tree as his bushes began to glow a bright green color. Suddenly, a ball of energy erupted from his mouth and crashed into the tree.

"It learned energy ball, too!" Brittany said with surprise.

Lauren ran over to hug Niko, "Whatever you did, it worked," She then kissed him on the cheek.

"I…I didn't do anything, though," Niko said. "But I'm really happy—and proud—of you, grotle. Really."

Grotle turned to Niko and nodded, a tear welling up in his right eye. He blinked quickly and the tear disappeared, but Niko and Lauren both noticed it.

Grotle's teammates were certainly excited about this new evolution, as piplup jumped onto grotle's back, close to the front, and staravia perched itself between the bushes. The grove pokémon happily walked back in the direction of the campsite, with Niko, Brittany, Lauren, and luxio following beside and behind him.

"I wonder, though," Niko said out loud, "how grotle managed to learn energy ball. When we practiced it didn't seem like he was making any progress. But, either way, I'm really glad you did. Now we're going to crush the Canalave gym, all of us!" He said, pumping his fist into the air. His four pokémon all responded as well with cheers of their own. Grotle, on the other hand, smirked as he thought of the bibarel's help. Without the beaver, he wouldn't have mastered energy ball, nor evolved. The more he thought about it, the more he wished he could thank the bibarel, since through that help he made his best friend and trainer happy, which is all that mattered to grotle.

"Wow!" JJ said upon observing grotle carrying two of his teammates. "So, I guess you found turtwig…?"

"Grotle, actually, but yeah," Niko responded with a satisfied grin. He pat grotle's back. "And somehow he learned energy ball!"

JJ nodded approvingly. "Well, let's quit dilly-dallying and get a move on! I have everything packed up, but we really need to make up some time if we're going to get to Canalave City any faster."

The other three ran over to grab their bags and continue their journey northwestward towards Hearthome City, the first stop on their long trip to Canalave City in the west.

On the way, Niko allowed his pokémon to walk alongside him, which wasn't a usual occurrence, particularly when the group needed to get to their destination in a hurry. However, Niko made an exception this time. As they were walking down near the river where grotle evolved, the grove pokémon noticed a bibarel swimming in the river. The beaver waved to grotle and his friends, all of whom responded in kind.

"Bibarels are kinda cool, aren't they?" JJ said as he showed togepi the beaver pokémon. Togepi nodded as she waved eagerly to the bibarel, who waved back gingerly before turning to grotle and nodding. Grotle nodded back, responding to their tacit conversation.

"Gro! Grot grotle!" He yelled out. _Thank you for everything_.

"Biba! Bibbib bibarel!" _It was my pleasure, friend._

* * *

 **Author's note: Okay, to be honest, including bibarel was completely random. I chose a pokemon that is naturally found on that route, and bibarel sounded good enough. There is nothing about its personality or abilities that relates to giving advice. Rather, the advice itself was more important than the messenger of it. It was important in helping turtwig think outside of the box. I also liked trying out the whole "pokemon talking to one another" thing. I believe i've done it before in some way or another. It allows me to go more in depth with each pokemon's characteristics, which admittedly a weak point in my writing, I think (among other things). I'm rambling now. I hope you enjoyed!**


	29. Trophy Garden

**Episode 29: Trophy Garden**

"Grotle, energy ball!" Niko shouted out loud.

"Shroomish, dodge and use mega drain!" JJ directed. The mushroom pokémon rolled out of the path of grotle's attack and, using the hole on the top of his head, attempted to drain grotle of his energy. The grove pokémon wasn't having any of it, rushing forward and biting down on shroomish's head and swinging it upwards in an arch-like motion. However, before shroomish left grotle's mouth, he released a stun spore, temporarily stunning his fellow grass type.

"Alright, that's enough for today, I think," Niko said, walking over to heal grotle with a cheri berry JJ had given him. Grotle began to move slightly moments later, leering at shroomish.

"That was a good battle, though," JJ commented. "It's not often shroomish and I get to battle. Usually it's more passive about these kinds of things. Umbreon, growlithe, and azumarill are usually more interested," Niko nodded, looking down at grotle. The grove pokémon stood back up and walked with his trainer back over to their campsite, which rested along a river.

Since grotle's evolution, the group had been moving northwestwards towards Hearthome City, and were out of the swampy environment and now in a more comfortable plains area a few days south of the city. Much of the journey thus was just walking, with hardly any time in between to train. However, Lauren's roselia was now making progress on grasswhistle, and Niko planned to help her out with teaching haunter dream eater, which he promised to work on with her that day.

Niko saw Lauren sitting with buneary and roselia, who had just put the former to sleep with a successful grasswhistle. "Hey."

"Hiya!" Lauren said, looking up at Niko with a smile. "What's up?"

"Want to work on dream eater?" Lauren nodded, shouting for haunter, who was busy playing tag with monferno and togepi. The gas pokémon floated over to his trainer.

"Niko's going to show us a new move, haunter," Lauren said.

"Hey, piplup!" Niko said to his penguin, "Can you come over here for a second?" The penguin nodded, running over to his trainer. "So, I'm going to help Lauren's haunter learn dream eater. To do that, he needs an opponent. Do you think you could help us out?" Piplup looked up at his trainer hesitantly. Eventually, he nodded. "Great! So, Lauren, haunter, essentially dream eater is the ability of a pokémon to use psychic powers to invade their opponent's dreams. So first off, your opponent—piplup, here—needs to be asleep. Can you do that?"

"Haunter, hypnosis on piplup!" Lauren shouted. Haunter's eyes began to glow red and large rings emitted from them, hitting piplup and quickly putting it to sleep.

"Great. Now haunter, try and see if you can focus your energy on piplup's mind. Once you do that, it'll be easy to manipulate them and do more harm to your opponent. Also be careful: you don't want to accidentally see your own dreams and thoughts. That's the mistake my noctowl made at first. Now, try it and let me know if you see anything."

Haunter nodded, closing its eyes. For a few moments, it remained silent until piplup started screaming in its sleep. Haunter opened its eyes quickly and backed away all of the sudden , hiding behind Lauren.

"Piplup, it's fine. I'm here," Niko said, but piplup lashed out, slapping his trainer with his flipper. Niko looked up at Lauren and haunter with a concerned look. "I've never seem that kind of reaction. Haunter, did it work? Did you see something?"

The gas pokémon nodded slowly with an oddly terrified look. He floated over to piplup and tried to gently touch the penguin's head in an attempt to soothe it. Piplup calmed down for a moment before opening its eyes. It was sweating profusely.

"The move must've worked," Lauren began, crouching down next to Niko, "but haunter clearly saw something that he shouldn't have. And what he saw must've been pretty scary."

Niko sat down on the grass and thought for a moment. What was piplup thinking about? Did it know haunter was going to invade? Was dream eater _too_ successful, and haunter accidentally came upon some unconscious thoughts, or forgotten memories? What _exactly_ did it see?

"On the positive side, haunter seemed to get it right pretty quickly. But let's not practice it for a bit, and especially not on piplup. I think maybe haunter went too deep into piplup's mind."

"Yeah, we should pay a little attention to piplup for the next few days. Hopefully nothing else happens. Anyways," She leaned forward to kiss Niko, "thanks for the help," Lauren said with a radiant smile. Niko returned the gesture with a gentle rub on her shoulder before helping her back up. He then helped piplup up, and the four went back to the campsite, where JJ and Brittany were getting ready to pack up.

On the way to Hearthome City, Niko relayed haunter's experience with dream eater to Brittany and JJ. Both of them, having remembered the first time Niko had to learn the move, agreed with their friend that haunter's attempt worked too well, and it accidentally came upon some memory that still haunts piplup, or one that the penguin is trying to forget.

"Niko, what do we know about piplup's past?" JJ asked. Niko placed his hand on his chin, scratching the fuzz on it.

"Well, we know that piplups aren't normally found near Oreburgh City, and that Professor Rowan was missing a piplup when we went to visit him," He then remembered his dreams about a piplup getting abused by its trainer, but he decided to keep that information to himself, as it was only a dream, and might not have meant anything. "But other than that, I don't know. Why?"

"Well, I don't know. But maybe something bad happened to it when it was younger that it wants to forget about, and haunter just accidentally stumbled upon it."

"It also wouldn't be a good idea to bring this up with piplup, I don't think," Brittany said cautiously. "Because it can't actually tell you, and it might hurt it more to touch on the topic at all."

"I agree. But…I don't want it to be hurting and not be able to do anything about it," Niko said with a concerned expression.

"Hey, guys, not to interrupt or anything, but what's _that_?" Lauren said, pointing to a massive mansion standing in front of them, roughly a hundred yards away and to their right. The mansion was protected by a gate with a massive courtyard behind it. The courtyard was decorated with bushes in the shapes of a variety of pokémon.

"No idea, want to check it out?" Niko asked. Lauren nodded in awe.

"Guys…" JJ said in a lightly scolding tone. "We really need to get a move on. We've already spent too much time not walking. We might not make it to Jubilife City in time for Brittany's contest."

"That's in over a week, JJ," Lauren snapped back. "Let's check this out. Come on, it might be fun! Who knows, you could find some cute rich girl to date!" She said with a wink, dragging Niko and Brittany over to the gate.

JJ sighed. "I'm already taken!" He said, running off after them, togepi in arms.

As they entered through the gate, they saw the front door of the mansion burst open, with dozens of small pokémon running around and half a dozen men and women in butler and maid outfits chasing after them. One of them ran up to the group, confused as to why they were there in the first place.

"We're just here to visit the mansion," Niko said politely.

"Well, we're not taking visitors right now!" A maid snapped back at him. "As you can see, we're very busy."

"Why don't we help you, then?" The maid just sighed loudly and nodded before running after what looked to be a cleffa, the pre-evolution of clefairy. Niko looked to his friends, all of whom nodded. They split up and, using their pokémon to help them out, managed to round up a lot of the small pokémon, which consisted of cleffas, igglybuffs (jigglypuff's pre-evolution), pichus, azurills, marills, and an eevee that Lauren picked up.

The maids and butlers looked at the group with awe as they herded the little pokémon back to the front door of the mansion. As they did so, a short, portly man walked out. He had light gray hair and a thick mustache that sat below his lowered spectacles. "Ah! You managed to find my pokémon! They had gotten loose from my Trophy Garden, and I was hoping none of them would escape. Did you all help in returning them?"

"Yessir," Lauren said, placing down the eevee in her hands. The evolution pokémon ran back up to the man, jumping into his arms.

"Well, I must thank all of you properly. Come in, come in," He said, motioning for the whole group—humans and pokémon—to follow him inside. The mansion was far more wondrous on the inside as it was on the outside, with pillars lining the walls of the front hall that then broke off into two directions. The floor was covered in a scarlet red carpet. "Now, pokémon, please head into the backyard. We've got food ready for you," He said, motioning for the crowd of small creatures to go down the hall and through a backdoor that a butler had just opened. The pokémon obliged, racing each other. The last one to leave was eevee, who looked back at Lauren for a split second before turning around and running off. "Oh! Silly me!" He said, stopping and turning back to the group. "I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Mr. Backlot. And who might all of you be?"

They all introduced themselves, and Mr. Backlot nodded pleasantly, turning back to continue walking into a large dining hall at the east end of the mansion. Everyone took a seat, their pokémon released on Backlot's suggestion, and a dozen butlers and maids walked out with plates of food.

"So, tell me about yourselves! I love meeting new guests!"

The group each talked about themselves for a brief moment, with Backlot nodding happily while eating his dinner. Eventually, they all finished talking.

"Well, it seems like you four have quite the journey ahead of you. Especially you, Niko," He said with a wink. "Being a pokémon master is no easy feat."

"I don't expect to be one for a long time. I'm just continuing my journey and trying to get better at battling alongside my pokémon."

"And that's good. You shouldn't get too ambitious. It will do more harm than good. Also, another word of advice—keeping your emotions in check is important. Not just for any goal, but for this one in particular."

Niko nodded, feeling like he already did. Since the Hearthome Tag Competition, he was feeling much better about his feelings and how he dealt with problems. But he also recognized that these weren't going to go away easily. He'd have to work harder to be more in control of himself and his emotions.

"Well, then," Backlot said, pushing his plate aside and standing up. "Why don't I show you my Trophy Garden, yes?"

The group all nodded and Backlot escorted them back down the hall, where they took a right opposite the entrance and walked through the backdoor. Outside they saw a magnificent garden on the side of a rather large hill. Pokémon of all shapes and sizes and species were running around and playing with one another.

"I do not own any of these pokémon, you see," Backlot explained as he saw the four trainers looking out in awe. "But a few decades back I decided to dedicate a part of my land to give wild pokémon a place where they can grow up and feel safe and at home. That is the story behind Trophy Garden. Occasionally, trainers might visit and catch one of these pokémon, provided that they will provide the best care to the pokémon. I only allow certain types of trainers to take them, even though they technically aren't mine to own."

"This is amazing…" JJ said. "It's almost like a daycare," He said, letting togepi down so that the baby pokémon could join and play with the others. She immediately fit in, joining with cleffas and an igglybuffs in a game of tag.

"Essentially, yes. You mentioned wanting to be a breeder. Well, if you ever decide to open up your own daycare, you're free to stop by here again or give me a call."

JJ turned to look at Backlot. "I will. Thanks, sir."

Meanwhile, Niko and Brittany were off playing with some of the baby pokémon. Lauren, on the other hand, was looking around for the eevee from earlier. She had noticed it briefly look back at her, and wanted to properly introduce herself.

She eventually found the little foxlike pokémon sitting under a tree, watching the other pokémon from a distance. As soon as Lauren approached it, the eevee flinched, looking like it was about to get up and leave.

"It's fine, I'm not going to hurt you. I promise," She said, sitting down next to eevee. After a minute of silence, she continued. "You don't like being social, do you?" Eevee shook its head. "I get that. Growing up, I didn't either. I didn't like talking with others, and was afraid of being judged for my looks, or for my smarts. And I still do today, but I found some great people," She pointed to Niko, Brittany, and JJ, "who aren't like that, and who like me for who I am."

Eevee sat in silence, looking up at Lauren.

"Do you enjoy being here?"

Eevee hesitated, but ultimately nodded.

"Well, I get it if you don't. Mr. Backlot provides everything possible to create a healthy and safe environment for wild pokémon, because the world can be a scary place if you're not strong. But he also understands that pokémon come and go. So, if you want to leave, you know that you can."

Eevee nodded, standing up and walking towards Lauren.

"Wait…what? We hardly know each other. Do you…want to join _me_?" Eevee nodded. "But why? I mean, I get it if you want to get stronger so that you can defend yourself. I'm challenging pokémon gyms and contests, so you'll get plenty strong with me. Is that what you want to do?"

Eevee nodded again.

"Alright then. Let's go tell Mr. Backlot," Lauren said, running towards the mansion owner. She approached Mr. Backlot with the idea of catching eevee, and he was absolutely thrilled by the idea.

"Of course you may take eevee! It's a strong-willed pokémon, but tends to sit on its own and watch others. It's very perceptive, but a little afraid of things bigger than it. At least, these are just my observations."

Lauren nodded, looking down at the eevee. "Well then, eevee, do you want to join my team?"

The evolution pokémon nodded, and Lauren pulled out a pokéball, tossing it down at the foxlike pokémon, who flashed bright red before going inside the ball. It wiggled a few times before ultimately clicking, signaling that the pokémon was caught.

She picked up the pokéball and turned to her friends, all of whom were watching the capture with pleasant interest. Niko walked over and gave her a quick side-hug.

"Ahah! Congrats, Lauren! I do hope eevee helps you on your journey!" Mr. Backlot said. "Now, I'm sure you four are exhausted from your trip. You are more than welcome to stay with me tonight, if you would like."

"We would love to," Brittany replied. Backlot chuckled loudly before bringing them back inside. After telling someone to arrange four—three, Niko corrected him—bedrooms, he gave the group a quick tour of his mansion, showing them statues and pictures of rare pokémon, as well as manuscripts of ancient documents relating to Sinnoh's legends, which piqued Niko's interest.

Half an hour later, the four of them were in their bedrooms, with Niko and Lauren sharing one. As they lay down to fall asleep, Lauren cuddled up close to Niko and looked up at him.

"Hiya," She whispered.

"Hey?"

"Today's been quite the day, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, it has. I hope piplup is doing alright. He seemed happy in the Trophy Garden."

"Mmm, so did haunter. Let's just not do that again," She laughed softly. Niko stroked her hair for a bit before she continued talking. "I hope eevee likes travelling with us."

"I'm sure it will. You're a great trainer."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

"But you always teased me about it."

"I was being cocky. I didn't really mean it," Niko said with a frown. "Which I'm sorry about."

Lauren reached up and kissed him on the cheek. "You're fine! I still like you," she was then silent for another moment. "Speaking of which…what _exactly_ are we?"

"What do you mean?" Niko asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I mean…like, are we just friends? Are we in a relationship? Or are we somewhere in between?"

Niko looked up at the ceiling, thinking for a moment. If he was being honest with himself, then he wasn't quite sure. But he was afraid of saying that to Lauren, out of fear that he might upset her. "Well, we both like each other, and we kind of show it, so wouldn't we be in a relationship?"

Lauren nodded, smiling. "Yes, of course. That makes sense."

She then kissed him, this time with passion behind it. They continued for a few more minutes before falling asleep.

* * *

 **Author's note: Alright, kind of a lot going on in this episode. Lauren catches an eevee (which could have gone better, but i'd rather have a quick capture and flesh out its character in later episodes than the opposite); Niko and Lauren have an intimate moment at the end (kinda threw that in there last minute. I've been meaning to have them show their feelings for each other for a few episodes now, and this is the kind of thing that can be thrown into any episode, really, so I figured to put it here); and we get to learn about the mystery behind piplup's background (or, rather, hints that there** ** _is_** **a background to our favorite little penguin), which will be expanded upon in due time.**

 **Hope you enjoyed!**


	30. Under the ground and into the wall

**Episode 30: Under the ground and into the wall**

The group walked out of Mt. Coronet as the sun was setting on the horizon. After a few days of travelling, they had finally cross over into western Sinnoh once again.

It had been a calm couple of days since they left Mr. Backlot's mansion. Niko and Lauren continued training for their gym battle in Canalave City while Brittany was preparing for her contest. Occasionally, JJ would step in and help when needed, whether it was for Niko or Lauren to battle against or to judge one of Brittany's performances. He also noticed togepi was taking an interest in the battles from the sidelines, and JJ sometimes noticed the tiny pokémon wagging her stubby arms back and forth in a metronomic rhythm. However, he hardly paid much more attention to it than a simple glance.

Now that Lauren had an eevee of her own, JJ also offered to help her train it, with his umbreon as a guide. The moonlight pokémon helped eevee with learning how to quicken its pace, how to dodge effectively as a four-legged pokémon, and how to use the move quick attack to the best of its ability. As an evolution of eevee, umbreon proved to be an ideal role model for the young pokémon, and they got along quite well during the first few days.

Brittany's pokémon were also learning moves of their own, but more focused on improving on their current movesets and discovering new ways to piece them together for a performance. Brittany spent some time trying to teach spheal how to use double team. Although it was a move the ball pokémon didn't naturally learn, Brittany believed that it could help to improve her performances in the upcoming contest. She was more worried about the contest in Jubilife than she let on, as it was her most disastrous performance since she first started competing in contests a year ago in Hoenn. She wanted to make sure that her pokémon, above all, where ready to take on this contest.

She also wanted to help vespiquen with her performance capabilities. The bee pokémon enjoyed battling more than performing, but Brittany managed to convince her that it was well worth her time. After looking up some potential moves that a vespiquen can learn, she decided that a move called "attack order" would work out nicely enough. It also wasn't a difficult move for vespiquen to learn, since all it did was manipulate her command of bees to attack the opponent. Finding a way to twist that into a performance for a contest, though, was a little more difficult.

The day after they crossed Mt. Coronet, the group found themselves within sight of Oreburgh City. However, as they started walking towards it, they noticed a familiar face and his gabite digging into a nearby mountain.

"Ian?" Niko asked curiously, attracting the attention of the blonde trainer they had met back during the Tag Team Competition. Ian looked over and smiled, running to greet the group.

"Hey guys! What's up?" He asked, shaking everyone's hands. "On your way to Oreburgh?"

"Yeah, it's our next stop on the way to Canalave City. What about you?" Lauren replied.

"Oh, I'm on my way to Snowpoint City up north for my fifth badge. Just beat Roark here. The Canalave gym isn't too bad, if you were wondering. Steel types, you know."

"Yeah…steel types," Niko repeated in a low tone. He then looked over to the hole Ian and gabite were digging into. "What's that?"

"Oh, this? So Oreburgh City has this sale on explorer kits right now, and I'm just taking advantage of it in case I find anything useful. There's a lot of cool things you can discover underground."

"You're going…underground?" Brittany asked quizzically.

"Mhmm! The Sinnoh Underground is famous for all the treasures and odd knickknacks that you can find! Rarely people find fossils, but it's not impossible."

"Mind if we join you?" Niko asked, much to JJ's complaining. "Oh, c'mon JJ!" Niko said, turning around. "What if we find something down there?"

"But…Jubilife…bah, fine," He said, throwing an arm up while holding togepi in the other. "Let's go…"

Niko grinned, slapping JJ on the shoulder as they went to help Ian and gabite dig. Here each of their pokémon managed to help in some way. JJ's umbreon and azumarill helped, as did Niko's piplup and grotle, Brittany's wartortle, combusken, vespiquen, and spheal, and Lauren's monferno and buneary. Ultimately, the group managed to find a nearby tunnel a dozen feet into the mountain, indicating that someone had already found a pathway down to the underground.

The tunnels underground was cleanly cut, looking more man-made than natural. As they walked through, Ian explained that the Sinnoh Underground was a network on tunnels that went virtually the entire region, with a few exceptions (of which he did not know). It was only his second time in the tunnels, but he had found that the tunnels near cities were more populated with trainers and explorers.

After half an hour of walking, they stopped at a seemingly unmarked wall that looked prime for digging. "Well guys, have at it!" Ian said cheerfully, pulling out a pick from his kit and looking at the others. "Oh…err, you don't have anything…" He looked around for something that could be used for a pick. Eventually Niko found a spare pick lying on the ground and handed it to Lauren, who got started on the excavation. He and JJ shared a hammer he found, and Brittany and Ian shared his pick.

For the next hour, the five of them excavated the surrounding area with little luck. Niko and JJ managed to find a thunderstone, which Niko pocketed while JJ found a green shard and placed that to the side. The other three had just as much luck—Ian found a pale pink plate and Brittany found a blue shard.

"Ahh!" Lauren shouted, throwing the pick down. "I found _nothing_!" She said, storming over to Niko. "What did you find?"

Niko pointed to his thunderstone. "Just that."

Lauren stared at him incredulously. " _Just_ that!? Niko, that's pretty rare!"

"Yeah, I know. But I have no need for it," He said before turning around. Lauren took this as an affront, and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Are you alright?" He asked soothingly, which seemed to calm his girlfriend down.

"…yeah, I'm just mad that everyone's found something except me."

Niko leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "You will, too. Just keep at it, alright?" Lauren nodded and got back to it, feeling a little more comfortable about the excavation.

"So how are the contests going, Brittany?" Ian asked as he watched her strike the pick at the wall, discovering a piece of bone stuck in it.

"Err, not that great. I still only have one ribbon, and I need three to enter the Grand Festival. The last three contests have been duds for me."

"I get that. It took me a few tries to beat Fantina—the first gym leader I battled. What's getting you down in the contests?"

Brittany sat down and thought about it for a moment. "It's usually the battles. I just get beaten each time, either by Lauren or some completely new trainer," She then recounted the Lake Valor Pokémon Contest to Ian, including tangela's subsequent evolution near the Seven Stars Restaurant. "So maybe I just need to get better at battling. That way, maybe I'll do better."

"I think so, too. But I'm still surprised," Brittany turned to look at him, bemused. "We did pretty damn well in the Tag Battle Competition. And it wasn't just gabite and my other pokémon that got us to the top 4 like we did."

Brittany half-smiled. "Well, it was you and gabite, too. Don't forget that."

"Heh. I don't!" Ian said, grabbing the pick and continuing. Moments later, he struck something hard. "Woah…what the…" He said, digging the area around it. "Hey, gabite, come here," Ian said, summoning his dragon pokémon. "Can you help me dig this thing out?" Gabite nodded, scratching at the edges around the object until Ian could pick it out. It was big enough to fit in his lap as he held it low to the ground. The dim lantern light above revealed an ovular shape with small curves towards the bottom of each side. "Could this be…? No, no way."

"What'd you find?" Brittany said, leaning over to get a better look.

"This is a fossil!" Ian exclaimed. "I found a fossil!"

Gabite cheered loudly as Niko, Lauren, and JJ all turned to see Ian hold up the fossil. "Congrats, Ian!" JJ said, giving the blonde-haired boy a thumbs up. "Those are rare, aren't they?"

Ian nodded. "Yeah. Although, I don't know what kind of pokémon will come out of this one. I haven't studied much about fossils."

As he said this, Niko continued digging, eventually finding something as well. He noticed the edge of a sphere jutting out of the wall nearby. Standing up to get closer, he carefully dug the area around it until a large rock with a light red sphere embedded into it fell towards the ground. Catching it, Niko noticed it also looked like a fossil, albeit a very heavy one.

"I—I think I found one, too," He said, dropping the pick and showing his friends. JJ's eyes widened, as did Lauren's. Ian and Brittany looked astounded, albeit with a joyful look on their faces.

"Yep, that looks like one. Not sure what comes out of that one," Ian said, absentmindedly lifting his own up and down. "Come to think of it, I think there's a fossil restoration lab in Oreburgh City."

Niko smiled with joy. "Really now? Excellent!" He then thought of Ted, a friend that he, Fay, and JJ met back in Kanto, and who worked at the Cinnabar Island lab last time he checked. It reminded him to try and get in touch with the scientist next time he was in the region.

Not wanting to waste any more time, the five of them packed up their things and went back the way they came, eventually reaching the exit tunnel back to the surface half an hour later. It took just as long to get into Oreburgh City, and when they did, it took just a bit longer to eventually find the Fossil Restoration Lab, towards the center of the city. The lab was in the Oreburgh Mining Museum, on the second floor. It looked like the one back on Cinnabar Island, with a variety of machines that none of the trainers knew how to operate. As they walked in, a woman in a lab coat approached them.

"Hello kids, how may I help you?" She asked in a rather polite tone. Her hair was bright orange and frizzled in several places, as if she had a lot of split ends in her hair. She looked fairly young, maybe only 10-15 years Niko's senior.

"My friend Niko and I have these fossils we found in the Sinnoh Underground, and we're not quite sure what to do with them," Ian explained.

"Oh! No worries, boys, place them on this table. We'll get started on the extraction process shortly. If you would like, you may visit the other exhibits in the museum while we work on the fossils."

Ian nodded, and the five of them went back to the first floor to check out what the museum had to offer. Niko and JJ found themselves interested in the massive piece of coal sitting in the middle of the room. Slightly disgusted, Brittany turned and looked at an exhibit that dealt more with drilling, even if it was directly related to the coal she found abhorrent.

An hour passed before the fossil extraction process was complete. Joining the scientist back on the second floor, Niko and Ian were each handed pokéballs.

"We were able to extract two pokémon from your fossils. They each now reside in these pokéballs. If you may, send them out please."

Niko and Ian both took command of the pokéballs, summoning the monsters inside. Out of Ian's came a small dinosaur pokémon with a massive shield-like plate for a head. Out of Niko's came a pokémon he and Lauren were all too familiar with—a cranidos.

"I…caught a cranidos?" Niko said. The headbutt pokémon yawned loudly before looking up at Niko, blinking. It immediately rushed towards him and headbutted him in the…extremities. "UGH!" Niko collapsed onto the ground, suddenly feeling nauseous. "Nice to…ugh…meet…you…" He said, wincing in pain. While JJ was laughing, Lauren and Brittany both kneeled on his sides to see if he was alright. "Yeah, I'll be fine…I hope."

"Well, there goes our evening plans," Lauren said sarcastically. "I'm JOKING!" She said in response to Brittany's glare.

"Anyways, cranidos," Niko began, finally being able to stand up, albeit slowly. "My name is Niko. I'm your new trainer," He held out his hand, which cranidos eyed for a moment before rushing forward to hug Niko. He flinched at first until he realized it was simply a hug. "Yeah, that's better."

"Wait, Niko…" JJ said, pointing at the cranidos. "That's not what Roark's cranidos looks like. His is blue."

"Huh?" Niko said, looking down at cranidos again. JJ was right. Roark's cranidos had a blue head, blue back and blue tail. All of those things were red on this cranidos. Once the scientist noticed it, she gasped.

"This is a very rare type of pokémon. It's shiny."

"Shiny?" Niko asked. "What's that?"

"Rarely a pokémon might be born with a different color than normal. For example, a magikarp's shiny looks golden, and a gyarados' looks red."

"That explains the red gyarados back in Johto…so, this cranidos is shiny?"

The scientist nodded. "Indeed. Cranidos generally are very rare finds in Sinnoh. I believe the last one who found one was Roark. That may be the one that you met. It's his second cranidos find, actually. But to find a shiny pokémon that is normally rare. Your cranidos is special indeed."

Niko looked down at cranidos, who was busy observing his surroundings. "You're a special pokémon, cranidos. I hope you realize that."

Meanwhile, Ian was introducing himself to his new pokémon—a shieldon, as it turned out:

" _Shieldon, the shield pokémon. Rock and steel type. It is outstandingly armored. As a result, it can eat grass and berries without having to fight._ "

"What a cool pokémon," Ian said happily. He looked over at cranidos and smiled. "One day we'll have to battle with these two, to see which one is the strongest, Niko."

Niko reached out his hand for Ian to clasp. "Absolutely. You and me, buddy."

* * *

The sun was setting as the five trainers walked out of the Mining Museum. There, the all said their good-byes to Ian, which Niko promising to challenge him to a battle next time they met up. Ian shook everyone's hand except Brittany, whom he gave a light hug to before heading north with his gabite as his side. The other four went to the Pokémon Center to have dinner, reflecting on their day and the journey ahead before heading off to bed.

As Niko slipped into the blankets, with Lauren to his right, he began to fall asleep, only to see the black-haired trainer and the piplup once again. This time, he had an idea of who it was. Waking up with a start and in a hot sweat, he looked over to see Lauren staring at him bemused.

"I'm fine," Niko said. But he wasn't fine.


	31. A jubilant victory!

**Episode 31: A jubilant victory!**

A couple of days after leaving Oreburgh City, the group arrived in Jubilife City—the third time they've been through the Sinnoh metropolis in their journey thus far. The night before Brittany's second attempt at the Jubilife City Pokémon Contest was spent in the rooms that the Pokémon Center lends out to travelling trainers. There, the four trainers—and their pokémon—talked the night away, choosing to stay inside after a long day of walking. Brittany and her pokémon needed the rest in preparation for their contest the following morning.

The contest in Jubilife was one of the larger competitions in the region, outside of the Grand Festival and the contest in Hearthome City. Brittany, understandably, was nervous about it, but tried to ignore it in the presence of her friends.

"So, tell me a story from your travels," Lauren said, posing the question to the other three. She would occasionally do this, and they would often talk about their adventures with Fay or Jake.

"Have we told you the time travel story?" Brittany asked.

"Oooh, I don't think so. Do tell," She said, sitting on the edge of her bed and pressing her head into the palms of her hands, and her elbows on her legs. Brittany then began regaling her friend in the time she and JJ went back in time to save the GS ball from the hands of Rex, the pokémon poacher.

"And the whole time Fay and I are running through a dark and dense forest with a madman and his dinosaur chasing after us!" Niko exclaimed. "But thanks to Brittany and JJ, we managed to stop him."

"We stopped him a second time, too," JJ added, remembering their encounter with the poacher at Tin Tower.

"That's right," Niko said, nodding in agreement. "Were it not for the legendary beasts, we'd all be dead right now."

Lauren laughed. "I've heard that's bad for your health. The whole dying thing."

Niko lightly pushed her to the side. "Of course, it is! Anyways, that's all we've got."

"The Johto region is really interesting, actually," Lauren added. "I definitely miss it."

Niko nodded, thinking back to his time there. It was in that region that he might have learned the more important lessons about being a trainer. It's certainly where he developed the most. He thought back to those times, wishing he knew then what he knew now.

* * *

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Jubilife City Pokémon Contest! I'm your host, Marian, and today we've got quite the show for you today! We have coordinators from all over Sinnoh and beyond competing with style and grace befitting a coordinator. For those unfamiliar, let me go through the different stages of a contest:

"The first round is the Performance Round. Each coordinator dresses up and enters a pokémon to perform. Occasionally, contests will require coordinators to use two pokémon in a performance. This one does not. Coordinators may use as many moves as they would like within the three-minute time limit. In the second round—the Battle Round—coordinators will face off against one another using the same pokémon from before, or a different one if they so choose to. Occasionally, like with the Performance Round, coordinators may be required to use two pokémon in a Battle Round, but this one will not. The winner of the Battle Round will be granted the Contest Ribbon. Now, without further ado, join me in welcoming our first coordinator, from here in Jubilife City, please welcome…"

Brittany tuned out Marian at that point. She hardly cared about what the host said, unless it was her name being called. Like the night before, she was nervous. The last time she participated in this contest, she didn't make it past the Performance Round. She was determined to win it this time.

"I've dealt with bigger crowds than this before. And I've dealt with bigger setbacks than this one," She muttered to herself. "And my pokémon are more capable of going all the way than anyone thinks. We're winning this."

Eventually, her name was called, and she got up and exited the backroom for the stage. Standing on the stage with hundreds of pairs of eyes focusing on her, she took a deep breath, composed herself, and tossed out spheal's pokéball.

"Spheal, use double team and maintain it!" The brunette commanded. The ball pokémon clapped cheerfully as he duplicated himself into five copies, all of whom were also clapping. "Now, ice ball into the air, like we practiced," She said calmly this time. The spheals all conjured thick balls of ice and shot them forward into the air. Immediately after, Brittany directed them to use aurora beam. The ice balls burst into thousands of small pieces, all illuminated by the rainbow hue of the aurora beam, creating thousands of small sparkles around the stage. Smirking, Brittany then commanded the double team of spheals to use ice ball and balance it on their heads. Each one conjured a second ball of ice and threw it into the air, catching it on their foreheads and swaying slightly to the left and right in order to maintain balance. After a minute, spheal ended the performance, the duplicates dissolving as the ball pokémon bowed politely to the crowd, as did Brittany. She then picked her pokémon up and carried him into the backroom to watch the rest.

Overall, there were close to 30 contestants in the contest, but only eight would move on to the Battle Round. This meant that the competition was far higher than it usually was for a Pokémon Contest, and it worried Brittany. However, her worries were allayed when Marian announced the coordinators moving on to the Battle Round: She was one of them.

She smiled a silly smile, looking down at spheal's pokéball. "Thank you, spheal. Because of you, we have a chance to get our second contest ribbon. I'm so proud of you," She whispered, suddenly getting the feeling that spheal had heard her. Looking back up, she realized that she was the first contestant up to battle.

Getting up quickly, she grabbed one of her pokéballs and ran out of the backroom and onto the stage, where she saw her opponent, a tall blonde-haired woman in designer casual clothing. She summoned her blissey to take on Brittany's vespiquen.

"Alright vespiquen, start off with sweet scent!" Brittany directed, thrusting her hand out in front of her.

"Blissey, sing!" The blond girl—Scarlet—shouted in return. The happiness pokémon opened its mouth and let out a pleasant tune. Just as vespiquen released an aroma from its abdomen, she heard the song and crashed to the ground asleep. "Now, egg bomb!"

"Vespiquen, wake up…" Brittany said in an ordinary tone of voice. "We'll lose if you don't. If you don't wake up, we can win the ribbon, and we might not make it to the Grand Festival…"

The bee pokémon woke up moments later, albeit groggily. She got hit straight in the face by an egg bomb, but quickly reeled back, floating into the air and, on Brittany's command, using power gem. Vespiquen raised her abdomen so that the bottom faced blissey and fired off a round of pink gems at the normal type, subduing her temporarily.

"Attack order and sweet scent!" Brittany called out. Vespiquen obliged, summoning a horde of bees to go after blissey, attracted by the sweet scent that was now surrounding the happiness pokémon. Blissey attempted to deflect using egg bomb, but the bees didn't falter.

"Blissey, soft-boiled!" Scarlet shouted. Blissey then picked out an egg from her pouch and began to glow along with it. A warm aura emanated from blissey, healing her up. However, Brittany wasn't letting up. Not now. Not when, according to the yellow bar under her name that dictated how well she was doing, she was on the winning end of the match.

"Vespiquen, power gem followed up by attack order!" She shouted once more. _I want vespiquen to keep her distance for now. She's more fragile than she might think. A few more egg bombs could do serious damage to her_. The bee pokémon launched out another round of pink gems before summoning a second horde of bees, all of which—ironically—irritated the happiness pokémon. Blissey tried to come back by using double edge—a move that would do her harm as well as her opponent—but Brittany commanded vespiquen to use power gem up close. As blissey got within range, vespiquen raised her abdomen once more and fired off another round of gems, hitting blissey square in the face, causing it to fall forward, defeated.

"Blissey is unable to battle, vespiquen wins! The victory goes to Brittany from Vermilion City!" Marian announced.

Brittany embrace vespiquen before returning her and relocating to the backroom, where she watched the other three battles unfold, watching carefully to see who her opponent might be.

The battles didn't take long, and soon she found herself back on the stage against her next opponent—a young boy named Kyle who had slick brown hair and wide-lense glasses. He sent out a fish-like pokémon called lumineon. Brittany challenged the lumineon with her pikachu.

"What's that?" Lauren asked, pulling out her pokédex:

" _Lumineon, the neon pokémon. Water type. It crawls along the seafloor using its long front fins like legs. It competes for food with lanturn_."

"Lumineon, captivate!" Kyle shouted. The neon pokémon winked at pikachu, suddenly making the electric mouse blush slightly. "Now, aqua ring!" A blue set of glowing rings appeared in a cross-like fashion around lumineon.

"Pikachu, snap out of it!" Brittany commanded. "Remember why we're here. Volt tackle!"

Pikachu shook her head before charging forward at lumineon, her body alight with electricity surging around her.

"Use bounce!" Kyle shouted, forming two fists in his hands. The fish leapt high into the air before crashing back down on pikachu, who halted her volt tackle just before lumineon landed on her.

"Pikachu, grab onto lumineon and use dizzy punch!" Brittany shouted. Pikachu placed her paw on one of lumineon's bottom fins and slapped her opponent with the other, causing her to reel back, wobbling around in confusion. "Now, thunderbolt!"

"Piiiii-KAAAA!" Pikachu shouted out loud, summoning as much electricity as it had and launching it at lumineon.

"Finish it off with volt tackle!" Brittany shouted, looking up and noting that her bar was a little lower than Kyle's. Finishing off the neon pokémon might ensure her victory. Pikachu landed her attack successfully on lumineon, who clearly looked unaware of its surroundings. The neon pokémon collapsed onto its side, defeated.

"Lumineon is unable to battle, pikachu wins! The victory goes to Brittany from Vermillion City!" Marian shouted.

Brittany kneeled down to hug pikachu as the electric mouse ran up and into her arms. They hugged for a moment before looking over and seeing a congratulatory nod and smile from Kyle, who exited the stage. She was doing it. She was in the finals for the Jubilife Contest.

Sitting in the backroom as she watched her future opponent's battle, she thought about her progress so far as a coordinator. It was certainly making her a better trainer, both in how she battles and in her relationships with her pokémon. It made her feel proud to be their trainer and coordinator, and she would never have seen the kind of development out of them had she not started competing in contests.

Minutes later, it was finally her turn. She stood up and walked out of the empty backroom and onto the stage to face her opponent, a young female from Eterna City with bright yellow hair named Selena. Once Marian finished explaining the rules, Brittany and Selena summoned their pokémon.

"Wartortle, you're up!"

"Togekiss, let's go!" Selena shouted. "Aura sphere!"

"Water pulse!" Brittany commanded.

Back in the stands, Niko, JJ, and Lauren watched intensely as their friend battled it out. Togepi, upon seeing the large, winged version of itself, suddenly got excited and started cooing and cheering loudly.

"Hey, togepi, settle down please," JJ said, rubbing togepi's right side. "I know, it looks like you. But we want to hear what they're saying, alright?" Togepi looked up at her trainer with a blank stare before nodding and calming down. "That's better. You can be excited, but don't start screaming, okay? Or else I'll take you out into the lobby and we can watch from the TV."

Togepi was stone silent the rest of the battle, watching intently.

The aura sphere and water pulse clashed in the middle of the stage, an eruption of water and pure energy soaking the surrounding area. Wartortle then tucked into his shell and launched at togekiss, who retaliated with another aura sphere, which wartortle collided with and crashed into the ground, although minimizing the damage it took by remaining in his shell. Popping out, wartortle summoned another water pulse and shot it upwards at an angle. The attack hit togekiss in the chest, causing it to falter a little before regaining its balance in the air. The jubilee pokémon then rushed downwards at a blindingly fast pace, slamming into wartortle, knocking it over, and swooping back up to where it was before.

"Wartortle! Are you okay?" Brittany shouted out. The turtle pokémon nodded, standing up slowly and turning to his trainer, holding a thumbs up. Brittany smirked. "Great, now use rapid spin and aqua tail!"

Wartortle jumped back into his shell and spun around like a top, launching himself into the air, far above togekiss. Once he was at the peak of his jump, wartortle leapt out of his shell and somersaulted in the air, his tail glowing a bright blue color.

"Togekiss, extemespeed!" Selena shouted. Togekiss charged upwards towards wartortle. The flying type collided with its opponent's tail. However, wartortle used the collision to flank downwards on togekiss' left side, grabbing onto the jubilee pokémon's right wing. "Shake it off quickly!"

"Wartortle, hold on and use rapid spin!" Brittany shouted. Mustering all of his available strength, wartortle lifted togekiss through the air, causing the flying type to lose its balance and cause both of them to hurdle towards the ground, spinning all the while. "Now, get into your shell to protect yourself!"

Wartortle obliged, withdrawing into his shell to minimize the impact of the landing, instead rolling to the side while togekiss crashed onto the stage floor.

"Water pulse now!" Brittany shouted. Wartortle raised both of his hands, conjuring a pulsating blue orb and throwing it across the short side of the stage at togekiss who, upon collision with the orb of water, fainted.

"Togekiss is unable to battle, wartortle wins! The victory goes to Brittany from Vermillion City!" Marian shouted cheerfully.

The crowd erupted in applause. Niko, JJ, Lauren, and togepi all cheered loudly in response to their friend's win.

Brittany kneeled down and held out her arms as an exhausted wartortle ran over to her. "I'm so unbelievably proud of you, wartortle. You did this. You earned this ribbon for us. You, and spheal, and vespiquen, and pikachu. But mostly you."

Wartortle lay against her chest, feeling as joyful and appreciative as his trainer.

"Great job, Brittany," Selena said, walking over to her two opponents, togekiss at her side. "I hope to see you again one day in another contest. I'd like to have a rematch then."

Brittany stood up and shook Selena's hand while wartortle looked up at togekiss. "You got it. And same to you. Togekiss is really strong, too."

Selena smiled before leading togekiss off of the stage as Marian took her spot. The host held out a teal colored ribbon. The same teal ribbon that Lauren had got in the first contest they participated in together.

"Congrats to you, Brittany. You've earned this ribbon."

Brittany took the ribbon, showing it to wartortle, who looked up at her with a prideful glare.

* * *

Brittany was greeted by her friends with more applause and congratulations. "Thanks, guys, but it was really wartortle and the others that did this, not so much me."

"What're you talking about?" Niko asked, walking up and placing his hand on her shoulder. "This was just as much you as it was them. Don't sell yourself short, alright?"

Brittany smiled warmly as she embraced Niko. "Thanks, buddy."

Lauren then walked up and grabbed her other shoulder. "Now we both have ribbons from this contest!"

"You've got that right. And soon, you and Niko will have six badges."

Niko and Lauren looked at each other before turning back to Brittany and nodding, determined looks in each of their faces. They four of them exited the Contest Hall before going to have lunch at a restaurant. They decided to spend the rest of the day walking around the city and taking a moment to relax before continuing on their lengthy journey to Canalave City.


	32. The secret berry

**Episode 32: The secret berry**

Niko stared over at the wide river in front of him. After Brittany's victory in the Jubilife City Pokémon Contest, the group continued their journey westward to Canalave City, with route 218 standing in their way. According to the map they were given, it was only a day-long trip, which was both a good and a bad thing for Niko and Lauren.

It was good because they were closer to their destination. Bad because there was less time for them to train. Granted they could post-pone the gym battle at their leisure, provided that the gym leader was available, but both of them preferred to get it out of the way.

Of the two, Lauren was more confident in her ability to win against the Canalave Gym Leader. Knowing that she would be competing against steel types, she had the advantage, as her monferno and buneary both knew attacks that would make her victory easier to attain. Nevertheless, she still trained with the both of them, especially buneary, who was fast but still fragile enough.

The morning after the Jubilife Contest, Lauren was battling against Niko, his cranidos versus her buneary. It was cranidos' first battle with Niko, and was expected to be a hard hitter, giving buneary ample practice for her defense.

"Cranidos, headbutt!" Niko shouted. The rock type lowered his head and charged forward excitedly, happy to finally participate in a battle.

"Buneary, wait for it…" Lauren said, figuring that cranidos was still not _that_ fast—not as fast as Roark's cranidos, to be sure. "Now!" She shouted, and buneary leapt into the air, kicked cranidos in the back of the head, and launched herself high into the air before landing gracefully on the ground. "Great job, buneary!" Lauren said with a sincere smile. The rabbit pokémon nodded proudly.

"It's okay cranidos, we'll get them. Use headbutt again!" Niko shouted. Cranidos turned around, kicked some grass underneath the claws on his feet, and once more charged at buneary. And once more, buneary leapt over, this time lurching back around to launch a quick thunderpunch across cranidos' face.

Since catching buneary, Lauren and the rabbit had gotten close quite fast. Whether it was because of a shared sense of ambition or a belief that they can always do better, the two seemed linked in a way that she wasn't with her other pokémon. Granted, each trainer has a special and personal link to each of their pokémon that is unique. However, Lauren and buneary had a battling style that looked like they were almost in sync with one another. In addition, Lauren has given buneary ample chances to prove itself in battle, participating in every competition they've entered in since the rabbit's capture. This has allowed buneary to gain more experience in battle, and to improve on any of its mistakes faster than most of Lauren's other pokémon.

Niko, Brittany, and JJ noticed this particularly during her battle with Crasher Wake, when buneary battled all three of his pokémon without fainting and defeated two of them. After the battle, Niko and JJ were talking, and the latter brought up the rabbit's performance, saying how quickly buneary has improved.

"She has a bond with Lauren, clearly. It's odd—she has a close relationship with all her pokémon, as do you and I—but buneary seems different. Like, they both want the same things, and both have similar goals: to be the best. I want that from my pokémon, too, but it just seems like theirs is unique in some way."

"Well, buneary has proved herself, that's for sure," JJ added. "She doesn't give up, and neither does Lauren. She's quick, tough, and doesn't deal well with losing."

The battle between cranidos and buneary continued for a few more round before the rock type collapsed from exhaustion. Niko ran over with a bottle of water and helped cranidos drink it.

"There, feeling better?" Cranidos nodded by getting up and lightly ramming Niko in the chest, pushing him over. "Not...what I…meant…" He said, the air knocked out of him. "But I promise you, we'll have more battles like this in the future. That's how we train to get stronger, alright?"

"Thanks for the battle, Niko," Lauren said with an earnest smile, helping her boyfriend up from the ground. "I think buneary is going to be just fine against defensive pokémon."

"I think so too," Niko replied, looking at buneary sitting down with a poffin in her hands. "You two have a special connection—and I think that makes her stronger."

"What do you mean?" Lauren asked, looking up at Niko.

"Just an observation, that's all. When you two battle, it seems like you're battling as one. Brittany and JJ have noticed that when I battled with my venusaur or my feraligatr or sceptile. I have a special connection with them. Same goes for you and buneary."

"Oh…" Lauren said. "Well, thanks!" She said cheerfully before walking over to her buneary.

Moments later, though, buneary collapsed on the ground, her forehead glowing bright red and sweat dripping down her body.

"Buneary….? What's wrong!?" Lauren said, shaking the rabbit. "Niko…what's happening?"

Niko, JJ, and Brittany all rushed over to see what was going on. Behind them, their pokémon all crowded around, trying to see what was going on. It was only until umbreon shoved them all away, out of respect for buneary, that the crowd dissipated, and the pokémon went back to whatever they were doing before.

JJ examined buneary for a moment before asking Niko to get him towel and soak it in cold water. Niko ran over, grabbed a towel, and asked spheal to help. Once the ball pokémon created cold water in a bucket, Niko soaked the towel in the water and brought it back to JJ, who placed it on buneary's head.

"That should help. It looks like it has a fever, but it might be a symptom of something worse," JJ observed. "But I'm not really a doctor. I don't know what's going on."

"But you _have_ to help her!" Lauren said, grabbing JJ by the collar. "She's _my_ pokémon!"

Niko calmly placed a hand on Lauren's shoulder. "Buneary is going to be fine, Lauren. We'll figure something out, alright?"

Lauren tried calming down, but looking back at buneary again saddened her. She then found herself lost in thought, trying to understand how the rabbit could have gotten sick. _Was it something she ate? Or over exhaustion?_ Figuring that the first explanation made more sense, she glared at JJ angrily. " _You_. You did this!" She said, pointing an accusatory finger at her curly blonde friend.

"What!? What did I do?"

"That poffin buneary ate! You must have done something to it!"

JJ looked back at her, incredulous. "You're going to blame me for this!? I gave my poffins to everyone here, and only buneary is showing signs of sickness. Maybe it's because you work her too hard!"

Lauren snapped back, almost growling at JJ. "THIS IS NOT MY FAULT, JJ!" She screamed out. "If that was true, then cranidos would also be feeling sick. If you were paying attention at all, you would've noticed that we ended the battle because cranidos got too tired, not buneary!"

"Well, it's not like buneary's going to quit! You know she never does!" JJ shouted back.

"Guys, guys…" Niko said, getting in between them. "You both need to stop," He said. This didn't help.

"Wait, you're _not_ taking my side in this, Niko?" Lauren asked, a scornful look on her face.

"What? That's not it. I'm only saying that we need to look at both sides here."

"Which means you're not taking my side. I see how it is…" Lauren then stood up. "I need to be alone right now."

"And leave buneary here without you?" JJ shouted back.

"Well, since you're such a god damn genius when it comes to medicine, maybe I SHOULD!" Lauren snapped at her friend before storming off into the forest.

The group was silent for a bit. Brittany was cooking up some warm food while JJ looked through a guide book on berries that he recently purchased in Jubilife City, hoping to find a cure. Eventually he did, and sent Niko and a couple of the pokémon to go off in search of it.

* * *

"I can't believe those two! And I expected so much more out of Niko than that half-assed attempt at peace," Lauren shouted aloud as she walked along the edge of the forest on one side of her and the river on the other. She then tried to think of things she might be able to do to help buneary. "I don't want to lose her…" She muttered to herself, stopping on the bank of the river to sit down. Picking up a nearby rock, she tossed it into the water, nearly hitting a magikarp. She then noticed she was crying.

Minutes later, a rustling in the bushes, caused Lauren to jerk around. When she saw no one there, she turned back to face the river, picking up another pebble and throwing it into the water, this time actually hitting a magikarp.

"Did that magikarp really deserve that?" A calm, male voice said from behind Lauren. Suddenly, a green-haired man sat down to Lauren's left. He was of average height with the aforementioned bright green hair with a long, thick strand of hair sticking straight up. He wore a black tank top with an orange hexagonal pattern on it, with orange pants to match.

"…No," Lauren eventually said. "No, it didn't. Sorry, I'm just having a moment."

"I get that. Sometimes when my pokémon act up, or I lose an important battle, I kind of just need some space, too."

Lauren nodded, still looking somber. "I just don't know what to do…my buneary just fell sick and I suddenly feel so helpless. And I accused my friend of causing it, and my boyfriend wouldn't take my side. It was just so terrible and confusing…"

The man laughed. "They wouldn't be friends if you didn't get mad at them every once in a while, right?" Lauren nodded, seeming to cheer up a little. "Now, tell me, what's wrong with your buneary?"

"She's sweating and her forehead is bright red. I don't know what caused it. I think my friend might have, since he makes poffins and buneary ate one just before collapsing. But before all of that, I was having a practice battle with my boyfriend, but buneary showed no signs of illness then."

The man nodded again. "I don't know what caused that, might've been neither the poffin nor the battling, actually. Could have been some virus your buneary contracted days, even weeks ago. I don't know much about pokémon medicine, but I know enough to maybe help you. Come with me," He then stood up, helping Lauren up as well, and led her into the forest.

They walked for some time before stopping near an unusually large tree that grew oversized pink berries.

"See this tree? It's one of the few trees that produces berries. Weird, right? Usually berries grow on bushes, but not here. But it's for a specific reason: these berries force a pokémon's immune system to go into overdrive. It's kind of painful initially, and by all accounts they taste terrible, but they produce results. This might help out your buneary," He leapt into the air, plucking one of the large orange pink berries from the lowest hanging branch. He handed it to Lauren, who took it in her palm and looked at it carefully.

Then they heard another rustling in the bushes behind them, and Niko suddenly appeared with piplup at his side. Staravia popped up over the trees, landing on one of the berry tree's branches.

"Niko…" Lauren said, running over to hug her boyfriend. "I'm sorry I got mad at you. Really…"

Niko rubbed her back gently. "So am I. I did a terrible job at trying to keep the peace. I just wanted to look at all the evidence."

"I know. I just felt alone, and you didn't make it any easier on me. But with the help of…this guy, now I have this berry that might help buneary," She then pointed to the green-haired man, who approached the two with his hand out.

"Aaron, bug type specialist and member of the Sinnoh Elite 4."

Niko and Lauren both stared at Aaron disbelievingly. "The Elite 4!?" She shouted out. "I-I've never met one of you before!"

Aaron laughed out loud. His voice was higher than the average man his age. "Yeah, indeed I am. But that's more of a side job for me. I spend most of my time exploring the natural world, learning as much as I can about bug types. That's actually how I found this tree—my beautifly found it as we were walking through this forest. I took one of the berries and travelled to Canalave City. In their library, I did some research and found out about the special properties of it. Just trying to spread the knowledge a little bit."

"Well, we really appreciate the help, Aaron," Niko said. "Now, we have to get going."

"Aaron, you're more than welcome to join us," Lauren said. "You know more about the berry than any of us do."

The Elite 4 member nodded, and the three walked off, with piplup and staravia in tow. When they made it back, Lauren introduced Aaron to the rest of the group and, after the initial surprise of being in the presence of an Elite 4 member went away, they got to work on healing buneary.

As it turned out, the berry only needed to be juiced, a simply process that took less than a minute. Once it was in a small cup, Lauren held it up to buneary's mouth. The rabbit pokémon took it reluctantly, and at first attempted to spit it out before Lauren continued to gently force it down her pokémon's throat. Once the cup was empty, Lauren placed buneary back on her sleeping bag and sat back, watching the rabbit rest.

For the next hour, the whole group waited for buneary to recover. Aaron stayed with them, curious to see if the berry would help. To pass the time, they talked with Aaron, asking him questions about battling, what it's like to be a member of the Elite 4, and other things. In turn, he questioned them, learning about their goals and ambitions. He found Brittany's to be the more interesting one, and found Lauren's participation in both gym battles and contests almost as fascinating. His reasoning was that contests in particular showed a unique edge to each pokémon in a way that battles don't. To him, contest performances force trainers to think outside the box, and in that way they unleash the pokémon's true potential.

Eventually, buneary woke up, and quickly sat up, looking around at the crowd of humans looking back at her. She turned to Lauren last, slowly getting up and hugging the blue-haired trainer. As she did so, she began to glow a bright white, growing quickly into a tall rabbit-like pokémon with a slender body and long brown ears that end in fluffy, cream-colored fur. Letting go of Lauren, buneary's evolved form stood in front of her.

"What the…?" Lauren asked.

"Buneary evolves when they have a strong relationship with their trainer. In this case, buneary evolved when it realized how much you care for her."

" _Lopunny, the rabbit pokémon. Normal type. The ears appear to be delicate. If they are touched roughly, it kicks with its graceful legs_."

"Woah…" Lauren said in awe. "Lopunny…do you really care for me that much?"

The rabbit pokémon nodded patiently before smiling. They hugged once more, and before they let go of one another, Aaron got up in preparation to leave.

"You're going?" Lauren asked.

"Yep. I've got places to be. But it was great meeting you all," He said before turning to leave.

"Wait!" Lauren shouted, catching Aaron's attention. He turned around with an inquiring look. "It might be too much to ask but…can I battle you?"

Aaron looked taken aback by the request, as if it were an absurd one. "Of course you can. Although, I'd recommend not using lopunny. It's bound to be pretty exhausted."

Lauren was about to agree when lopunny stepped forward in defiance of Aaron's advice. She then shrugged, as if there was no stopping her pokémon. "Guess lopunny disagrees with you."

Aaron laughed tacitly. "One-on-one battle, then?"

"You're on," Lauren said, getting up and running towards the open field she used to battle with Niko earlier. It was then that she noticed lopunny was bounding past her, almost effortlessly. Once Lauren and Aaron were on opposite ends, the latter pulled out a pokéball and tossed it into the air, summoning a beautifly. "Lopunny, you're up! Use agility and quick attack!"

"Beautifly, energy ball!" Aaron commanded. The tiny butterfly pokémon summoned a green and white ball of pure energy and launched it at lopunny, who easily evaded the attack and bounded through the air, slamming into beautifly and knocking it into the ground. "Bug buzz!"

"Lopunny, thunderpunch!" Lauren shouted, but it was too late. Beautifly's antennae began vibrating at a vicious pace, creating a nastily loud sound that did harm to lopunny's sensitive ears. The rabbit pokémon keeled over into the grass, screaming from the bug buzz. Beautifly then stopped the noise on Aaron's command, giving their opponent time to recover. "Thunderpunch again!"

"Psychic!" Aaron shouted. Beautifly's eyes started glowing a bright purple as it took control of lopunny, picking it up and throwing it across the field towards Lauren. "Now, finish it off with energy ball!"

Beautifly launched another energy ball at lopunny, hitting her square in the torso and knocking her back, this time falling into Lauren's waiting arms.

"So, Lauren, you've gotten a taste of what the Elite 4 here in Sinnoh is like. You're a strong trainer, I'll give you that. But you and lopunny still have a long way to go before you can face trainers like myself," He said with a smile. "But you're on the right track, for sure."

Lauren nodded with a smile, feeling just as exhausted at lopunny was. "Thanks, Aaron. I appreciate the opportunity to have battled you."

"Anytime. And I hope lopunny feels better. I'll be seeing you," He said with a graceful wave, walking off towards Jubilife City with beautifly fluttering at his side.

The group stood there for a moment in silence. Eventually, JJ spoke up. "Lauren, I'm sorry if I caused this at all, and I'm sorry for snapping at you—"

"JJ, shut up," Lauren said simply with a smile. "You did nothing wrong. Neither did Niko, or cranidos, or lopunny, or me. And even if you did, it wasn't on purpose. Either way, I forgive you. And I should also be apologizing for my behavior. I didn't need to get angry with you."

JJ shook his head, laughing. He then walked up to Lauren and brought her into a hug for a few moments before they released one another. For the rest of the day, the group sat by the river, either training or simply enjoying the company of one another, choosing to take their time in getting to Canalave City.


	33. Return of the Hunter

**Episode 33: Return of the Hunter**

"Lauren, this is your home?" JJ asked as the group approached Canalave City, which rested on the edge of the sea facing northwards. Like Vermilion City, Canalave City had a section of the city siphoned off for a port, which boats of all sizes moving in and out, which a massive drawbridge bisecting the port.

"Yeah…this is it. I'm home," Lauren said hesitantly.

"You don't seem happy about it," Niko said quietly, placing a hand around her shoulder. Leaning into him, she nodded.

"I'm alright. It's just been a while, you know?"

"Oh, I definitely know," Niko replied.

The first stop was the Pokémon Center, where they put their bags down in one of the rooms that they checked out. After having a quick meal, Niko went to talk with his parents in Pallet Town. Being in Lauren's hometown reminded him that he needed to keep in touch with his own roots, just as he had done in Solaceon Town.

"Mom, Dad?" Niko asked as he heard the video call connecting to Pallet Town. Suddenly his parents appeared on the other end, delibird fluttering behind them, frantically trying to see his trainer. "Heh, hey delibird!"

"Deli! Deli!" The delivery pokémon cheered.

"Hey son! How's it going?" Niko's Dad said cheerfully.

"Good, just got to Canalave City. Lauren and I are going to battle for our sixth badge. How's Jake doing?"

"Jake's fine. He was at home for the past couple of days. He needed some rest before heading back out again. While he was here he trained against some of your pokémon. Let me tell you, Niko, your pokémon really miss battling. I don't think I've seen them have that much fun training with Jake in a long time," Dad continued.

"That's…really great to hear…" Niko said with a half-smile. He looked behind him to see Lauren peeking over his shoulder. "Got something to say?"

"Nothing at all, _boyfriend_ ," Lauren said with a particular emphasis on the last word.

"'Boyfriend?'" Niko's Mom asked accusingly. "Niko…"

"What? She's my girlfriend."

"You never told us about this…"

"It just happened! Like what, a week ago or something?" Lauren nodded. "I, umm, just wanted to wait until I called you next to, uh, tell you both…" Niko said nervously, scratching his head and perspiring slightly.

"Well, we hope you're taking care of our son, Lauren," Mom said teasingly. "And no funny business with him. He's still young."

"Mom…I'm older than she is. I'm 20!" His parents guffawed at him. "Ugh…Lauren, just wait until I meet your parents."

"That isn't going to happen," Lauren said before walking off, confusing Niko. He looked at his parents with a bemused expression.

"Anyways…I found a fossil a week or so ago! Inside was a cranidos!" Niko said, pulling out a pokéball and summoning the dinosaur pokémon. "Mom, Dad, meet cranidos!" He announced. "Cranidos, these are my parents."

"Hello there, cranidos!" Mom said pleasantly. Cranidos got close up to the video screen, trying to understand the concept of it all.

"I'll explain later, buddy. I just wanted you to meet them. My shinx and turtwig evolved, too. I'll have to show you them sometime. But…I think I should get going, so the others can talk with their parents. Except Lauren, though, she's from here. Bye now!"

"Bye Niko, we love you!" Mom said.

"Deli! Deli deli!" Delibird shouted happily.

"Bye delibird. Love you both," Niko said as he ended the call. Letting out a long and heavy sigh, he got up and walked back over to his friends. "So...Lauren, is there anything cool to do around here?"

"Not seeing my family, that's for sure. But as for activities…maybe the port? There's a nice view there. There's also the library, but I don't know if that would interest anyone but you," She said with a teasing wink. "But we do need to train a bit if we can."

Niko nodded. "Well, how about checking out the port, then?" Lauren nodded, standing up and grabbing Niko's hand, practically dragging him out of the Pokémon Center, with JJ and Brittany following behind. "Wait…I thought you two were going to call home?" The other two shook their heads, noting that they could do it later, as their families were likely busy with work and might not be available to talk.

Making it to the port didn't take too long, as Lauren was dragging Niko at a quick enough pace. Once they got there, it was late afternoon, and the sun was starting to paint the ocean beyond in a bright orange glow. Like with Pastoria City, it was a cathartic moment for all of them.

Not having grown up too close to the sea, and largely travelling far away from water, Niko always enjoyed their visits to the coastline. This was especially apparent in Kanto and Johto, when they hardly saw it, and thus far in Sinnoh, where this was the third time they'd seen the sea.

He grabbed Lauren's shoulder and gently pulled her in, letting her lean on him as they watched boats come in and out of the port, gracefully moving along the water. As he sat there with his girlfriend and two of his closest friends, he reflected on the road thus far. His journey through Sinnoh has, so far, been the calmest experience for Niko. Unlike in Kanto and Johto, where he dealt with issues of self-confidence and the basics of being a trainer, or in Hoenn, where he often worried about Team Aqua and Magma or his brother, here in Sinnoh Niko hadn't felt the need to address any major problems or issues. The only exception was in Hearthome City, when Hunter harmed JJ's pokémon and Niko lost control. Otherwise, his life has been a relative bliss.

He could tell that his friends would have agreed. They hardly fought—not that it was an issue before—and he felt like he was beginning to understand the complexities of being in a relationship, especially with someone that he was travelling with. In that moment, with Lauren laying against him, he felt more affection for her than he had ever felt for another person. It was an odd feeling—a tingling sensation, similar to the feeling of butterflies in the stomach. It was a feeling that he never felt for Melinda, or for any other girl or woman he had ever known. Was it love? Maybe, but what is love, exactly?

As far as his pokémon were concerned, he began to feel more confident in his abilities as a trainer. Luxio was feeling more confident in himself, if their training sessions were indicative of anything. Piplup was exerting more effort than usual, and cranidos was a ton of fun to be around, and gets along well with his teammates, despite essentially being a baby pokémon.

All-in-all, nothing could do Niko any wrong.

"No…way…" JJ said with an air of surprise and dread. Brittany, Niko, and Lauren all turned to their left to see the same slick-black haired man walking by the ports, his hands in his pockets. "What's that jerk doing here?"

"Hopefully nothing important. Just ignore him, JJ," Brittany cautioned. JJ nodded in agreement, not wanting to start anything. Neither did Niko, since he didn't want a repeat of what happened in Hearthome. Lauren, however, wasn't about to hold back.

"Hey you douche!" Lauren shouted at Hunter. "Stop dirtying up this city!"

Hunter looked up at Lauren with a scowl before walking up the hill they were on to approach them. In an oddly calm, yet intimidating, tone, he spoke directly to Lauren.

"Then you should probably leave too. You're from here, aren't you?" Lauren nodded. "Well, I knew this city was garbage anyways. It's got you, obviously your family, and that gym leader, Byron."

"Don't you… _dare_ talk about my family," Lauren said, balling up a fist. Niko lowered her hand with his before standing up, nearly as tall as Hunter.

"Listen punk, if you want to mess with Lauren, you'll have to get through me first."

Hunter then punched Niko in the gut, causing him to double over and fall back onto the hill, clutching his stomach.

"How's the gym challenge going, Niko?"

"About to get six badges…" Niko said, gritting his teeth as he tried to ignore the pain in his stomach.

"Oh, is that right? Did the gym leaders just give you the badges out of pity?"

"My pokémon earned them. And if you think you're so high and mighty, why don't you just battle me then?"

Hunter raised an eyebrow curiously. He looked thoughtful for a moment before answering with hesitation. "You really want to challenge _my_ pokémon? After the beating your pathetic friend took last time we met?"

"That was unnecessary and you know it! You were his teammate!"

"Niko, it's fine…I've moved on…" JJ cautioned.

"No, JJ. I won't. Hunter is an asshole. He doesn't care about others, yet he participates in a competition where he has to," Niko turned to Hunter. "I want to challenge you to a battle. And I intend to make you pay for how you treated my friend and my girlfriend."

"Girlfriend? _That_? Really?" Hunter was genuinely surprised, but he hardly showed it. "Makes sense, we tend to be attracted to people most like us. And if you're a pathetic sack of emotions, then it would make sense that she is too."

Niko had had it. Losing all control, he lurched at Hunter, almost tackling him to the ground before the man dressed in all black grabbed his throat and threw him to the ground.

"You wear your emotions on your sleeve, child. It makes it easy to get under your skin. Only weaklings show as much emotion as you do."

Niko scowled at Hunter. "I still want my battle."

"Fine then, if you insist. Pokémon Center in half an hour. Three-on-three."

Niko nodded, standing up with Lauren's help. The group then parted with Hunter, moving towards the Pokémon Center.

The entire way there Niko was silent, seething with anger. As of now, Hunter has insulted Lauren, Lauren's family, JJ, JJ's pokémon, Niko, and Niko's pokémon. Niko wouldn't let that go, and he didn't want to. He wanted to let his anger be the driving force.

Back in their room at the Pokémon Center, Niko sat down on his bed, slamming down both fists out of anger. Lauren sat down and hugged him from the side, which hardly calmed him down.

"Niko, it's fine. I can take his insults, and so should you."

"I won't let him insult you, or your family, or JJ. It's not going to happen," Niko said, not looking back at her. "I have to send a message to him. Let him know that he is just as pathetic as he claims I am."

"Is revenge really the answer, though?" Brittany asked, sitting down on the bed opposite them. "Why can't you ignore him?"

"Didn't I just answer that, Brittany?" Niko said, raising his voice a little, which quieted her down. No one seemed eager to make another attempt at making Niko see reason, instead hoping that he could beat Hunter in this practice battle.

Eventually, the time came, and Niko walked out onto the Pokémon Center's practice battlefield. Hunter was already waiting at the far end of the field, a pokéball in his hand. Brittany, Lauren, and JJ made their way to the bench on the opposite side of the field, with the latter acting as judge. Once Niko got to his end, he pulled out a pokéball before turning aggressively to face Hunter.

"Toxicroak, I choose you," Hunter said plainly.

"Staravia, you're up!" Niko shouted, knowing that he could rely on type advantages here. "Use aerial ace!"

Hunter was silent as staravia launched into the air, swooping around in a circle before diving downwards at toxicroak.

"Poison jab!" Hunter commanded. The poison mouth pokémon's right claw began to glow bright purple, and the frog jammed it into staravia, disrupting the aerial ace and stopping staravia in his tracks. "Now, sludge bomb!"

Toxicroak opened its mouth and released balls of inky black sludge at staravia's face, knocking the bird backwards onto his back. Toxicroak then leapt into the air and landed a poison jab on staravia's chest.

"Staravia is unable to battle, toxicroak wins!" JJ shouted, shooting a worried look in Niko's direction. He ignored it, and summoned his second choice.

"Luxio, you're up!" Niko shouted, knowing that grotle wouldn't stand a chance, and cranidos is not ready to take on any of Hunter's pokémon. "Use spark!"

"Oh, please Niko. Spark? You can do better than that. Toxicroak, faint attack!"

Toxicroak waited for the spark to get close before disappearing on the field. Luxio looked around in panic, the uncertainty of toxicroak's location unnerving the spark pokémon. Eventually toxicroak reappeared on luxio's right side, slamming its right claw—glowing purple with poison—into luxio's side. The spark pokémon howled out in pain as he collapsed onto the ground.

"Luxio, get up! Get up!" Niko shouted desperately. "We have to win this, we just have to!"

Luxio struggled, but it eventually got back up, much to Niko's satisfaction. He then commanded the spark pokémon to use thunder fang.

"Toxicroak, sucker punch," Hunter said lazily. The poison type allowed luxio to get close, his fangs coated in electricity, before ducking down and upper cutting luxio in the stomach, launching the feline-like pokémon high into the air. "Sludge bomb," Hunter said with a sigh. Like with staravia, toxicroak launched out several balls of inky black sludge at luxio, who was rapidly descending to the ground. Toxicroak then slammed its claw into luxio's chest, aiming specifically for the spot that the sludge bomb hit. Once more, luxio howled out as he crashed into the ground, defeated.

"Luxio is unable to battle, toxicroak wins! Niko will send out his final pokémon!" JJ declared unenthusiastically.

Seething with rage, Niko ripped off his third pokéball from his belt and threw it onto the ground, with piplup coming out of it. "Piplup, let's win this," Niko muttered between his teeth. However, upon piplup's summon, both the penguin and Hunter gave each other curious looks. Niko then looked at their expressions and remembered his dreams.

 _I was right. That's him. That's the guy I've been seeing in my dreams._ He _chose piplup, and_ he _abused him._ Niko felt rage surge through his body like never before. It was an unfamiliar feeling, to physically feel the anger in his body. His hands balled into fists. He looked down at piplup, who in turn looked up at him.

"Kick his ass, piplup. NOW!" Niko bellowed out.

Piplup nodded, rushing forward with a new vigor. The penguin agilely dodged toxicroak's poison jab, as if having memorized how the poison mouth pokémon moves. He then flanked toxicroak's right and landed a peck on the frog's shoulder before getting hit with a poison jab, which knocked him far to the side.

"Piplup! Use water pulse!" Niko cried out aggressively. The penguin nodded, leaping into the air and throwing a blue pulsating ball of water at toxicroak, who burst it with sludge bomb. Piplup then dove back to the ground and unleashed a bubblebeam at toxicroak, who once more blocked it with sludge bomb. Toxicroak's attack was strong enough to pierce through the bubbles and hit piplup square in the face, knocking it over. "Get up now, piplup!" Niko commanded aggressively. "We can win this!"

Piplup nodded, struggling to get up as toxicroak charged forward at him. He evaded another poison jab before launching a bubblebeam at the frog's face, knocking it slightly backwards, and giving piplup time to distance himself.

"Toxicroak, you know the drill," Hunter said. "Finish off this pathetic excuse for a pokémon. Now."

Toxicroak nodded, rushing forward as if it were using quick attack and launching a barrage of poison jabs at piplup, all of which hit the penguin in every part of the body.

Piplup fell face-first onto the ground, his body bruised and bright purple all over, the poison quickly taking control. Slowly, though, he got back up.

"Hmm? This is new. You never got back up, piplup. You always gave up too easily. That's why I kicked you out. That's why I regret ever catching you," Hunter said with a scoff. "At least you found company in Niko. You two belong together."

Piplup stood up to his full—yet short—height, and began to glow a bright white color, growing to twice his height. His flippers elongated; his round head suddenly growing two large, yellow ridges that extended from his beak over the back of his head and met at the nape of his neck. Four white spots appeared on his body. His skin was a darker blue, with the exception of the tips of his flippers, the immediate surrounding around his eyes, and his belly.

" _Prinplup, the penguin pokémon. Water type. Because every prinplup considers itself to be the most important, they can never form a group_."

"Good," Hunter said. "Because no one would be friends with a pathetic pokémon like yourself, prinplup. Toxicroak, finish him off."

"PRINPLUP, GO!" Niko shouted, emboldened by the evolution. Prinplup nodded, charging forward, his flippers glowing a light gray color. The flippers quickly met toxicroak's poison jabs, but only briefly—the gray glow suddenly disappeared for some reason, giving toxicroak the opening it needed. It stabbed prinplup in the chest, launching the penguin pokémon backwards across the field, where he landed at Niko's feet.

"Prinplup, are you alright?" Niko asked, kneeling down to inspect his pokémon. Prinplup nodded weakly before fainting.

"Prinplup is unable to battle, toxicroak wins! The victory goes to Hunter!" JJ announced in a sad tone. He watched as Hunter approached Niko.

"You wanted to battle. Are you happy with yourself now? You just proved to not only your friends and to your pokémon, but also to yourself how genuinely weak you are. You don't deserve to take on the gym challenge. Quit now while you still can, Niko, if you have any sense of pride left."

Niko slowly looked up at Hunter's black irises. "I have more pride left than you can even imagine."

"I find that hard to believe, given how quick you are to react with anger. You aren't worth battling, in all honesty. Thanks for the waste of time," Hunter said calmly before leaving the battlefield, and Niko alone with his friends.

Later that evening, Niko sat on the bench to the side of the practice battlefield, his pokémon sitting around him, just like in Amity Park. He filled in cranidos and grotle, both of whom seemed shocked by how Hunter behaved towards their trainer, and how he supposedly acted towards prinplup, who ignored them all that evening.

"Prinplup," Niko finally said, looking over at the penguin pokémon. "If you ever want to talk, I'm here. I know I can't understand anything you say, but I'll always be here for you."

Prinplup turned to Niko and solemnly nodded. Luxio curled up next to Niko, also feeling defeated. After regaining much of his self-confidence and self-worth after evolving and defeating Crasher Wake, Hunter and toxicroak seemed to make it all disappear. Luxio didn't show it, but he shed a tear, suddenly feeling as pathetic as Hunter made him out to be.

Staravia was also silent the entire time, trying to forget about the battle. He too felt like his pride was ripped from him. He knew he could do better, especially when aerial ace _never_ misses, even when the odds are stacked against him.

Cranidos, trying to process all of this, simply sat next to Niko, constantly looking up at his trainer for answers. Occasionally Niko would return the look and pat him on the head reassuringly.

Niko himself wanted to feel better. But he couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, Hunter was right. If he wanted to be a pokémon master, then why couldn't he beat Hunter? Why could he allow this jerk get to him so easily? Why couldn't he take better control of his emotions?

* * *

 **Author's note: I've made it clear before that Hunter would be complex. He is also difficult to write sometimes because I am struggling to find new words for him to use (like garbage, weakling, etc.) to insult others without resorting to excessive swearing (which I try to use sparingly). I hope you enjoyed this episode, as it was difficult to write, not just because of the "blossoming" relationship between Niko and Hunter, but also because that relationship is going to be important later on, and I needed to figure out how to get it started off in the correct direction, and put both characters on the path that I want them to go.**


	34. Body of steel

**Episode 34: Body of steel**

Niko woke up the next morning with Lauren at his side, sleeping soundly. Not wanting to wake her up, he gently removed the blankets and inched his way off of the bed. However, this woke his girlfriend up anyways. He turned and stared at her, and she him, before he sat back down on the bed and began to stroke her hair.

"Feeling better?" She asked.

Niko simply nodded. It was true—he was feeling better. It was a new day, and he would be challenging Byron for his sixth Sinnoh gym badge. Although, he couldn't help but feel that there was something still bothering him. He felt better, but not completely better.

He sat with Lauren for some time before Brittany and JJ also got up, and the four returned their pokémon to their pokéballs after JJ fed them and, after getting ready for the day, the four of them went to grab breakfast by the port, watching the boats go off on their morning trips to destinations unknown. Afterwards, they proceeded to the gym, which was just south of the port on the west end of town.

The Canalave Gym was a tall metal structure with curving steel planks on each side. It looked very much like the Oreburgh Gym, but instead of having an earthy appearance, it looked more refined and almost had a steam punk look to it.

Upon entering the gym, Niko and his friends saw only a battlefield with rocks of varying sizes scattered around it, similar to the Oreburgh Gym. On the other end of the field sat a tall man with a five o'clock shadow on his face, spiky gray hair, a tank top and baggy pants, a cape, and a shovel in his hands.

"Welcome to the Canalave Gym, kids!" He bellowed out cheerfully. "I'm Byron! Tell me, do you all plan on challenging me? I've got a busy day ahead of me."

Niko shook his head. "No sir, just Lauren and I. I'm Niko from Pallet Town."

"Ah, Pallet Town, eh? Kanto boy. Should be an interesting battle, for sure. And you, miss?"

Lauren stepped forward. "I'm from here, actually."

"Oh? Wait a moment…" He said, eying Lauren. "I know your father. Yeah, we briefly worked together on Iron Island. How's he doing?"

"I don't know, haven't visited him yet."

"I see, I see. Understandable, kids need space from their parents. My boy certainly did a lot growing up. You've probably battled him already. Roark?"

Niko and Lauren stepped back for a moment. "Roark's your son?"

Byron nodded cheerfully. "Indeed he is, and a fine gym leader at that. In fact, I used to run the Oreburgh Gym, but left for better opportunities here. Roark wasn't pleased, but I left the gym in his hands and could not be prouder of the work he has done. Anyways, so two battles? Niko, and Lauren…who wants to go first?"

Lauren stepped forward after a quick smile in Niko's direction. "I'll go first!"

Byron laughed loudly. "Excellent! Three-on-three battle, then?" Lauren nodded. They had to wait a few minutes for the referee to get to the battlefield before they began. Once he did and explained the rules of the match, Lauren and Byron both pulled out pokéballs and began.

"Bronzor, I choose you!"

"Haunter, you're up!" Lauren shouted.

"Hypnosis!" They both commanded. Red rings appeared from both sets of eyes as haunter and bronzor put each other to sleep, leading to a stalemate.

"Fine then. Haunter, return," Lauren said. "Monferno, let's go!" She commanded, summoning her fire monkey. "Use flame wheel!"

"Bronzor, wake up!" Byron called out as monferno jumped into a wheel of fire and rushed towards the sleeping bronzor, eventually colliding with it. The bronze pokémon was knocked back, hitting a rock with the full weight of its body. This was enough to wake it up. Byron let out a sigh of relief. "I'm certainly not used to my pokémon being put to sleep, Lauren. Good work. Bronzor, use extrasensory!"

"Monferno, mach punch!" Lauren shouted. The playful pokémon rushed forward to slam her fist into the bronze mirror, but suddenly got caught up in odd sensation, causing her to stop in her tracks. Bronzor then rushed forward and slammed into monferno with its full weight behind it, knocking the fire monkey backwards. "Fire swipes!"

"Huh?"

Monferno's hands lit up in flames as she slashed at bronzor, catching it off guard and knocking it backwards. "Now, flame wheel!" Monferno jumped into her wheel of fire and slammed into bronzor, dragging it across the field and into a nearby pointed rock, defeating the mirror-like pokémon.

"Bronzor is unable to battle, monferno is the winner!" The referee declared.

"Monferno, return."

"Bronzor, return," Byron said, exchanging one pokéball for another. "Steelix, you're up!"

"Haunter, let's go!" Lauren shouted, hoping to have a better chance this time, only to find the gas pokémon asleep. "Oh dear…"

"Steelix, iron tail!" Byron shouted. The iron snake pokémon lashed its tail out, hitting haunter and ramming it to the left side of the stadium, away from the spectators and the referee. Crashing into the wall seemed to wake haunter up, as the gas pokémon frantically looked around in a panic, eventually finding Lauren, who smiled weakly.

"Haunter, let's go. Use hypnosis!" She shouted, thrusting a finger forward. Haunter nodded, his eyes glowing bright red before emitting increasing red rings that put the iron snake to sleep. Steelix fell forward, its massive head crashing into the ground with a loud "thud." Now with their opponent asleep and remembering Niko's training, Lauren commanded haunter to use dream eater.

Haunter closed his eyes, feeling around for steelix's mind. Once he found it, he quickly and easily invaded, corrupting the iron snake's dreams. Steelix began to thrash around wildly as if it were having an all-too violent nightmare.

"Now haunter, use shadow punch!" Lauren commanded. Haunter nodded, thrusting his fist forwards at steelix, knocking it across the face. Realizing how ineffective this might have been, Lauren called for haunter to use dream eater again, but steelix woke back up, this time in a rage.

"Great job, steelix. Let's win this! Use gyro ball!" Byron commanded. The iron snake opened its mouth, conjuring a fast-spinning ball of steel and launching it at haunter. The gas pokémon took the hit and slammed backwards into the ground, unsure what exactly hit him. "Now, dragonbreath!"

Steelix opened its maw once more and unleashed a torrent of purple and orange fire down on haunter, who found it difficult to protect himself. Lauren tried directing him to use night shade, which momentarily halted the onslaught of dragon fire, but the attack nevertheless proved itself to be painful for the ghost type.

"Steelix, finish haunter off with iron tail!" Byron shouted, thrusting his shovel outwards. Steelix roared wildly as it lifted its tail up and slammed it down on haunter, who was too slow to react.

"Haunter is unable to battle, steelix wins! Lauren will send out her second pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Lopunny, you're up!" Lauren shouted as she threw out the pokéball containing the long-eared rabbit. "Use agility and quick attack!"

Lopunny burst off of the ground, charging across the field towards the iron snake. Byron commanded steelix to use dragonbreath, which lopunny evaded, and gyro ball, which lopunny also evaded, before slamming its tail in front of the bunny.

"Jump on the tail!" Lauren shouted. Lopunny obliged, running up steelix's tail.

"Shake it off, steelix!" Byron shouted. Steelix attempted to, but lopunny was far too fast. On Lauren's call, she leapt off the side of steelix, foot extended out, and used jump kick against the snake's massive jaw, knocking the entire pokémon to the side before landing on the ground gracefully. "Use gyro ball!"

Steelix opened its mouth once more and, at an unexpected speed, conjured the gyro ball, which moved too fast for lopunny to react to. The rabbit pokémon was shot back across the field where she hit her back hard on a rock, whiplashing her forward.

"Lopunny, we can do this, alright?" Lauren said with a hint of determination in her voice. "You and me, we can beat this thing. Use agility and jump kick!"

Lopunny quickly got up, fire in her eyes as she bounded back across the field at steelix, dodging more dragonbreaths and gyro balls before launching into the air, spinning horizontally, and slamming her foot across steelix's jaw from the opposite end, knocking steelix to the ground in an archlike motion.

"Finish it off with another jump kick!" Lauren shouted. As lopunny descended to the ground, she aimed her foot at steelix's head, landing successfully with enough force behind her to defeat the iron snake.

"Steelix is unable to battle, lopunny wins! Byron will now send out his final pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Steelix, return. You did great. Bastiodon, I choose you!"

"Bastiodon?" Niko asked, pulling out his pokédex:

" _Bastiodon, the shield pokémon. Rock and steel type. When they lined up side by side, no fore could break through. They shielded their young in that way_."

"Lopunny, agility again!" Lauren shouted, wanting lopunny to be as fast as she possibly could be. "Now jump kick!"

"Bastiodon, iron defense," Byron said calmly. Once lopunny was close enough, he shouted "Flash cannon!"

"Run through the flash cannon!" Lauren called out. Lopunny nodded, but failed, as the flash cannon—a light gray beam of light—hit lopunny directly in the face, knocking her backwards on the field. Lopunny tried getting back up by feeling around her. Lauren paused in shock. _No…that's not right…_

"If you're worried about lopunny being blind, don't worry," Byron shouted out reassuringly. "In all my years using that move with bastiodon, no pokémon has come out of battle permanently blinded. It's only a temporary condition. Either way, your lopunny is not able to battle."

 _Why is that move legal…?_ Lauren asked. Frowning, she recalled lopunny in exchange for monferno, her only available pokémon left. "Monferno, mach punch!"

"Bastiodon, iron defense!" Byron shouted. The shield pokémon began glowing a shiny gray color, indicating that it was attempting to strengthen its defenses. Monferno slammed her fist on bastiodon's front shield, but cried out as the move seemed to hurt her as much as it hurt the former fossil pokémon. "Ancientpower!"

"Monferno, use mach punch on the rocks!" Lauren shouted. Monferno, using her other hand, stepped back and slammed her fist into each rock that came at her. "Now, flame wheel! And don't stop!"

Monferno nodded, jumping into a wheel of fire and launching towards bastiodon without stopping. She then found herself running _up_ her opponent's shield and into the air.

"Now, mach punch straight down!" Lauren shouted. Monferno's other hand began to glow a bright white color as she slammed onto bastiodon's back. The shield pokémon roared out before monferno leapt behind it and used flame wheel from the back, once more hitting bastiodon.

"Iron defense!" Byron commanded. "Ancientpower everywhere around you!"

The second attack seemed to work out just well. Monferno got hit from every direction, knocking her to the ground and giving time for bastiodon to rotate its massive body to face its opponent.

"Now, flash cannon!"

"Roll to the side…now!" Lauren directed. Monferno ducked and rolled to her right before bounding off the ground to use mach punch on bastiodon's side and, on Lauren's command, another mach punch from the other side. Bastiodon's legs gave out from under it, causing it to fall from the force of the mach punches. Before it fainted, it released a series of ancient rocks hurdling at monferno. Panicking, the playful pokémon started launching punch after punch at each once before succumbing to the last few.

"Bastiodon is unable to battle, monferno wins! The victory goes to Lauren from Canalave City!" The referee shouted.

Lauren reached her arms out as monferno rushed towards her, leaping into her embrace.

"We did it buddy, we did it…I'm so proud of you," She said, pressing monferno against her. "But…we need to head to the Pokémon Center immediately. Lopunny was hurt in her battle against bastiodon," She looked up at Niko who was approaching her. They briefly hugged, but Lauren had to leave. "Sorry, I need to make sure lopunny is okay."

Niko nodded urgently, motioning her off, monferno quickly hurrying after. Brittany decided to accompany her as well, wishing Niko good luck before she exited the gym.

Niko turned to face Byron who had returned from healing his pokémon. After the rules were explained again, both pulled out pokéballs to begin the battle.

"Bronzor, you're up!" Byron commanded.

"Grotle, I choose you!" Niko shouted. "Use razor leaf!"

"Retaliate with extrasensory!" Byron commanded. Even though grotle was successful in hitting bronzor with his torrent of sharp leaves, he felt an odd psychic sensation course through his body that made him wince in pain. "Now, hypnosis!"

"Close your eyes grotle!" Niko said in a desperate attempt to evade the move. Fortunately for him, it worked. With a smile, Niko continued. "Energy ball!"

Grotle opened his eyes and mouth, conjuring a bright green and white ball of energy that launched at bronzor, once more hitting the bronze pokémon successfully. Bronzor reeled back for a moment before using flash cannon on Byron's orders.

"Grotle, energy ball!" Niko shouted. The grove pokémon summoned his energy ball once more, halting the flash cannon in its tracks. "Now, razor leaf!"

"Grooo!" Grotle shouted, a flurry of leaves flying from the bushes on his back. In response, bronzor use hypnosis, which put grotle to sleep quickly.

Unsure of how to get around this, Niko began shouting at grotle in an effort to wake him up. Nevertheless, grotle stayed asleep as bronzor unleashed another few rounds of flash cannon. Weakened, grotle eventually woke up and stood back up.

"Grotle, use razor leaf!" Niko shouted.

"Bronzor, flash cannon!" Byron commanded. Both attacks launched out, hitting the other. Bronzor spun out of control backwards, hitting the same rock as it did during its battle with Lauren. Grotle collapsed where it stood.

"Bronzor and grotle are both unable to battle. Leader Byron and Challenger Niko may both send out their second pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Steelix, I choose you!"

"Prinplup, you're up!" Niko shouted, knowing fully well that he could beat the steelix. "Use water pulse!"

"Gyro ball!" Byron commanded. Both sides created balls of water and steel and launched them at once another, forcing them to explode in midair. Prinplup then rushed forward to get closer to steelix, but the iron snake whacked him to the left of the field with a smooth iron tail. "Dragonbreath!"

"Bubblebeam!" Niko commanded. Prinplup released a stream of bubbles that somehow counteracted the dragon fire jetting from steelix's maw. "Now, water pulse!" Prinplup launched a second water pulse at steelix, this time hitting under the snake's jaw. Steelix retaliated angrily with another gyro ball, which hit prinplup square in the chest, launching it backwards.

Steelix then, on Byron's command, unleashed another jet of purple and orange fire against prinplup, who tried blocking it with water pulse, but it failed. The penguin then lifted up its long flippers, which briefly starting glowing bright gray before disappearing.

"Prinplup! You can do this buddy! Water pulse!"

Prinplup winced through the fire, getting up and conjuring a water pulse, which broke through the dragonbreath and hit steelix square in the face.

"Nice job! Now, bubblebeam!"

Prinplup launched another stream of bubbles at steelix's face, hitting it and knocking it over. Niko then commanded the penguin to use water pulse once more to finish off the iron snake.

"Steelix is unable to battle, prinplup wins! Byron will now send out his third and final pokémon!" The referee declared.

 _We might be able to do this…_ Niko smiled, having seen how well bastiodon fights. Byron unaspiringly summoned the massive shield-like pokémon. "Prinplup, water pulse!"

"Flash cannon!" Byron commanded, holding out his shovel in a gesture. Bastiodon unleashed the blinding flash of light towards prinplup, who closed his eyes and blindingly launched a water pulse, which burst instantly upon contact with the flash cannon, and hit the penguin square in the chest, knocking him over. "Now, ancientpower!"

"Prinplup, get up! Use metal claw!" Niko shouted, having only recently learned the move prinplup learned upon evolution. Prinplup's flippers began to glow a bright gray color as he attempted to slash at the ancient rocks hurdling towards him. However, the flippers once again stopped glowing, and prinplup felt the barrage of rocks hit him one by one. Prinplup collapsed onto one knee before taking a final flash cannon, defeating him.

"Prinplup is unable to battle, bastiodon wins! Niko will send out his final pokémon!" The referee declared.

Biting his finger, Niko pulled out his third pokéball. "Luxio, you're up! Use spark!"

"Bastiodon, flash cannon!" Byron commanded. The blinding light burst forth from the shield pokémon's body, passing by the flurry of sparks and hitting luxio in the face, knocking it backwards. "Iron defense!"

"Thunderfang!" Niko shouted, thrusting his fist forward. Luxio nodded, rushing at the former fossil and lunging forward to bite down on it. Unfortunately, due to the iron defense, bastiodon was far harder now, and luxio instantly felt a surge of pain erupt through his teeth and into his body. The spark pokémon collapsed to the ground. "Get up, luxio! We have to win this!"

"Bastiodon, ancientpower!" Byron commanded. Just as luxio was getting back up, more ancient rocks swarmed around him, hitting him from all sides. Bastiodon then unleashed another flash cannon, launching luxio across the field and into a rock next to Niko. Luxio collapsed onto the floor of the battlefield like a ragdoll.

"Luxio is unable to battle, Bastiodon wins! The victory goes to Leader Byron of Canalave City!" The referee declared.

Niko went over to pick luxio up, holding the feline pokémon in his hands.

 _"_ _You wanted to battle. Are you happy with yourself now? You just proved to not only your friends and to your pokémon, but also to yourself how genuinely weak you are. You don't deserve to take on the gym challenge. Quit now while you still can, Niko, if you have any sense of pride left."_

He sighed, returning luxio and standing up to face Byron, who was looking at him firmly. JJ then appeared to Niko's right, holding togepi in his arms.

"Niko, you battled well, but not well enough to earn the Mine Badge. I suggest you continue training until you feel ready to have a rematch. It is clear you don't understand how to fight the steel type pokémon, and if you need help better understanding this, I recommend you go to Iron Island, and look for a man named Riley. He is an old friend of mine, and someone I see as a second son to me."

Niko nodded. "Thanks for the battle. I'll look into your advice."

Before Niko and JJ turned to leave, Byron pulled out a small badge from his pocket. "You're friends with Lauren, right? Give this to her. She's earned it."

Niko took the badge and nodded, turning to exit the gym with JJ at his side.

"So…when are we going to go to Iron Island?" JJ eventually asked as they approached the Pokémon Center.

"'We?' No, JJ, I'm going to go alone."

JJ nodded in agreement. "That's a good idea, actually," They both then stopped at the entrance to the center. JJ then placed a hand on Niko's shoulder. "I know you're letting this loss get to you, but don't. This isn't Johto anymore, or the Indigo League. A loss isn't devastating enough to force you to quit. At least not a gym battle. So cheer up. We're still in your corner."

Niko smiled. "Thanks, man."

The two then went into the Pokémon Center to tell Brittany and Lauren the news. Both were understandably upset, but largely repeated JJ's advice to not let Hunter's words get to Niko.

"How's lopunny doing?" Niko asked, turning to face his girlfriend.

"Fine. Like Byron said, she'll need a couple days to fully heal up. Brittany told me about the time you dealt with something similar, and how you overcame it. It made me feel better," She said, moving over to Niko and cuddling up next to him. "I believe in you, Niko."

"Thanks," Niko said simply, lost in his own thoughts. The following day, he decided, he would journey to Iron Island to train.


	35. The way of all steel

**Episode 35: The way of all steel**

Niko got up early the morning following his gym battle with Byron to train on Iron Island, per the Gym Leader's advice. As he often tries to do, he attempted to not wake Lauren up, but as usual he failed at that.

"Where are you going…?" She asked groggily, rubbing her eyes with her fists.

"Iron Island. I need to go train."

"Can I come with you…?" She asked in the same tone.

"No. I'd prefer to do this with just my pokémon. Sorry…" He leaned down and kissed her forehead before returning his team to their pokéballs, getting dressed quickly, and leaving the room with his bag slung over one of his shoulders.

After looking at the map, Niko and JJ found Iron Island to be just north of Canalave City, or a quick boat ride away. All Niko needed to do was find someone to ferry him over there.

After a while of looking around the port, asking various sailors if they could help him out, he eventually found Byron talked with a tall mustached man with dark brown hair. The Gym Leader immediately noticed Niko as the trainer approached him.

"Niko! You made it! Excellent. Niko, this is Clint. You might know him as Lauren's father. Clint, this is Niko, the challenger I was telling you about."

Clint eyed Niko with suspicion. "How do you know my daughter?"

Niko looked up at Clint in surprise. "Err…I've been travelling with her actually," Niko admitted, choosing to err on the side of honesty, if anything. Clint raised an eyebrow, as if unsure of how to respond.

"Lauren never told me she was travelling with people. But I can deal with that later. Niko, Byron tells me you need to head to Iron Island?" Niko nodded. "Excellent. I've got some free time this morning to take you. Do you know how long you'll be there?"

Niko shook his head. In reality, he had no idea how long the training would take. Byron then clasped his hand on Clint's shoulder.

"Riley will notify me when he is ready to come back. It might not be or a couple of days, at most."

 _A couple of days!?_ Niko thought to himself, astonished. There's no way he would need that much time to train. What exactly is waiting for him on Iron Island?

Niko stepped onto the boat with Clint, and in moments they were off onto the sea, watching Canalave City quickly grow smaller. After the city disappeared in the distance, Niko sat down in the passenger seat of the small boat, which looked oddly similar to the one he and JJ would occasionally operate during their travels through Hoenn. After a while, Clint began to talk, asking about Lauren, her well-being, how she was doing in her gym challenges and contests. Niko answered each question in turn, noticing how all of the answers seemed to please him.

"You sound like a good kid, Niko. Where're you from?"

"Pallet Town in Kanto."

"Ah, Pallet Town! I've been there a few times, but never for leisure, usually on business. Lauren's probably mentioned that we're from Johto."

"Yeah, she has. I've been there, too."

"Oh? What for?" Niko explained that he competed in the gym challenge there. "Ah! Lauren wanted to as well, but she got into some danger, and I had to put my foot down. It was difficult to see her leave again, but I couldn't necessarily stop her. She's getting older now, and far more independent. But she needs her space, always has. It's comforting to know that she has people with her to look out for her. You might have noticed, but she kind of can—oh, how do I put it?—she can be _too_ independent sometimes, and tends to shut others out when she's frustrated."

"I didn't know that, sir. I'll keep an eye out for that. Any advice?" Niko asked.

"Just to not let her get too far away from you. But space is necessary when she's mad. Well, that's how it is with a lot of people, but just a tip for you if you need it," Clint was quiet for a moment. "I'm really proud of you, y'know. I never got a chance to see the world the way she does. Sure, I get to travel a lot, but I don't get to go challenging gyms or bettering myself as a trainer. I got married early on in my life, and then Lauren came along, and then…well, and then she lost her mother, my wife…"

"I'm sorry to hear that…Lauren never mentioned anything about that."

"She won't. She doesn't talk about it. Never has. In fact, it's best to not bring it up at all. Losing a parent is a special kind of hell."

"I wouldn't know…" Niko said solemnly.

"And be glad you don't. Neither did I, but I lost my best friend. Next to a parent, that's the worst kind of pain.

"Anyways, I'm really proud of Lauren. And I know her mother would be, too. Competing in both gyms and contests can't be easy."

"No, it's not. But Lauren is a very talented trainer. I'm really proud of her, too," Niko said, looking down at the water passing by. A sharpedo leapt out of the water and then back in, moving in an archlike motion. He was being earnest—he really was proud of Lauren, and all that she's accomplished. Back when he started his journey, he couldn't have hoped to do the kinds of things Lauren has; to know the kinds of things she does; to have had the same kinds of experiences that she has had. In some ways, she reminded him of Fay: another talented trainer who found himself successful early on in his journeys.

"Alright then! Niko, we're here," Clint said, arriving at a dock on the edge of a massive island. Niko could see why it was dubbed "Iron Island:" the entire landmass was a mixture of earth and iron chunks in the form of a collection of small hills and mountains. Near the dock sat a relatively small house. And, as Niko was getting off of the boat, the house had a resident.

"Niko! Pleasure to meet you," The man said, walking down a set of stairs with his hand out. He was a tall man with black dress pants and a navy-blue blazer with a black collar. His hair was dark brown, eyes blue, and he wore a blue hat with a black band running around it, and a set of three pointed edges on the back of the hat. "I'm Riley. Byron told me you'd be joining me here for a couple of days to train, is that correct?

"Yes. Hi Riley," Niko said, returning the handshake. Riley then waved to Clint, who got back on the boat and rode off.

"Come, let's get you settled first, and then we can go into the mountain and begin. So…tell me about yourself."

Niko paused, unsure of where to begin. He was always terrible with this kinds of questions. Always unsure of the intention behind the questioner. "Well, I'm from Pallet Town, and I've been travelling for three and a half years now, battling gyms and Pokémon Leagues. I have five badges so far in Sinnoh, and intend on competing in the Pokémon League here."

"Impressive, impressive. But you seem to have trouble against Byron. Why is that?"

"I don't know, really. None of my pokémon have a natural type advantage, to start with. And I've always had difficulty battling steel types. When I challenged Jasmine back in Johto, I had to rematch her, too."

"Ah, makes sense. Trainers will often have weak spots in their teams and battling styles. For you, it seems to be the steel type. I can certainly help you with that."

"How?"

Riley smiled. "By understanding how the steel type works," They had already made it to the house, and Niko had dropped off his bags and followed Riley into the mountain.

The tunnels of Iron Island were very well lit, compared to the myriad of caves and tunnels Niko has travelled through in his adventures. It took them only a few minutes, until they entered into a large chamber that was also well lit.

Riley then led Niko towards a wall on the far end of the chamber made purely of iron ore. He briefly touched the wall before lifted his hand off and turning to Niko. "Summon your team of pokémon for me."

"Alright. Everyone, let's go!" Niko said, throwing out five pokéballs containing grotle, luxio, prinplup, staravia, and cranidos. "Guys, we're on Iron Island to train for our rematch against Byron. This is Riley; he'll be helping us."

"Indeed. Hello everyone. Now, it wouldn't be fair if you were the only one using your pokémon. Lucario, come on out," Riley said plainly, summoning a familiar aura pokémon into the chamber. "This is my lucario. He'll be showing you all what I want you to do. Now," Riley put his hands behind his back, as if he were about to conduct a lecture, "The steel type is vulnerable to three different elements—fire, ground, and fighting. You have neither of the first two, or so I can imagine, but you can learn the third in two different ways. By learning a fighting move, or to utilize your body in certain ways to replicate a fighting move, usually with a punch or a kick. Prinplup, cranidos, you are both better suited for this. Prinplup, can you use metal claw on this wall here for me?"

Prinplup nodded, his flippers glowing light gray. As soon as he slashed at the wall, the glow disappeared. The penguin winced in pain from slamming so hard onto the wall.

"Well, we'll need to work on that. For the other three, you can hit steel types hard enough by hardening your own bodies, which if strong enough can replicate that of a fighting move. Make sense at all?"

They all began shaking their heads in a negative way. Riley frowned, trying to figure out a better way to explain it.

"You know what, then? Just use whatever moves you have at your disposal to attack this wall. You might want to space out a bit to give yourselves some room. You all know your movesets, and how you can use those moves. Beat on this wall as much as you can until you are too tired to continue. Niko, I have something for you to do as well."

"Huh? Me?"

"Yeah. While they're using attacks, so will you," He pointed to a set of pickaxes. "You will also be digging into this wall."

"Why me?"

"You will get the best results when you are working in sync with your pokémon. You don't have any special abilities or moves—at least, as far as I'm aware—but you too can break through a wall. Here, take this pick and begin."

Niko gave Riley a bemused look before grabbing the largest pick and walking over to the wall, next to grotle, who was firing off energy balls at the iron-coated wall. He then lifted the pick and began whacking at the ore, breaking pieces of it off and onto the ground.

* * *

The six of them did this for hours before all of them collapsed. First was staravia, who by far had the hardest time breaking through the iron ore. Eventually he had had to resort to using his talons, but those exhausted quickly and he collapsed onto the ground. Luxio was second to stop—there was only so much electricity he could muster, but he certainly felt like he was improving. Cranidos was next, but it took him a while to get exhausted, as it was easy for him to break through the iron ore. Lastly, prinplup and grotle kept at it for some time, eventually turning it into an endurance contest to see who would stand for the longest. The two kept at it for hours before they collapsed onto the ground simultaneously.

The whole time, Niko dug into the wall, feeling the ore crack under the weight of his pick. Occasionally he would have to change picks or change hands with which to hold the pick, but he continued on for a while.

"I'm impressed, Niko," Riley said. "Normally trainers stop after an hour or so."

"Yeah, but I'm really tired. Don't get me wrong," Niko said as he dropped the pick to the floor a few feet away from him.

"Now, when you were breaking the ore, did you notice anything at all?"

Niko thought about it for a moment. As he considered how the ore broke, he thought about the amount of energy he needed to break each piece. Sometimes he needed as much energy as he could muster, and other times he only needed a light tap. But what determined how much strength he had to put into his hit? _The way it looked?_

He relayed this all to Riley. "Good. You understand how to break iron and where to break it, and how much force you need to put into your hit," He then turned to the pokémon. "Did you all notice that, too?"

They all nodded. Cranidos then demonstrated by ramming his head into the iron wall, shattering it again.

Eliciting a laugh, Riley continued. "I'll take that as a yes. Well done, all of you. Let's head back to my place then and rest up."

Back at Riley's house near the dock, the pokémon ate some pokéfood with lucario while Riley taught Niko how to repair the picks he had used that day. The process wasn't terribly difficult to understand, but it did take a while. After that, the six of them fell to sleep, either on Riley's couch or on the rug in front. After several more hours, Niko found himself waking up sometime in the evening, his pokémon already up and about, presumably with Riley.

Getting off of the couch, Niko rubbed his eyes and stood up, walking over to Riley's kitchen to grab a glass of water. While he drank it, feeling the cool liquid rush down his throat, he looked outside to see his team running around and playing. He couldn't help but smile as he watched from inside. They were all very serious pokémon most of the time—cranidos excluded—so it was welcoming to see them happy and seemingly healthy. To Niko, it was one of the many things that made his adventures worth it.

Walking outside, niko saw Riley sitting on a nearby bench watching them with lucario. "Your pokémon are quite active."

"Yeah, we usually try to give them time every day to just run around. My friends and I have a lot of pokémon altogether, so it's important that they socialize and engage with one another."

"How are you feeling now?" Riley asked. "I understand that you haven't done much today. If you need to stay a second or third day, you are more than welcome to."

Niko thought about it. But his decision was made when he considered how much work his pokémon put in that day. They—especially grotle and prinplup—only gave up when they collapsed from exhaustion. That was more than he could ask for from them.

"I think we can do it now. I've seen how Byron battles. I know his pokémon's moves, and today gave me a way to counteract them, or to at least do damage to them."

Riley nodded. "Excellent. Well, allow me to take you back, then. I have a boat down by the docks."

Niko nodded, calling his team to come back to him. Once they all gathered together, Niko returned them to their pokéballs and he set off with Riley and lucario to Canalave City.

During the trip, neither of them said much, and it didn't take long for them to arrive back in the ports. By this time, it was close to midnight. Niko got off of the boat, but before he walked towards the Pokémon Center, he turned back to look at Riley.

"Thank you Riley, lucario. I really appreciate you taking the time to help us out."

"Anytime, Niko. Best of luck in your rematch and in all of your future battles. Remember what you learned today."

Niko nodded, determination glowing in his eyes. "I will. Thanks."

It didn't take him long to get back to the Pokémon Center. He stood at the front desk while Nurse Joy healed up his team before he went off to the room he and his friends were staying in.

The room was illuminated only by the fiery tip of monferno's tail, which helped guide Niko over to the bed Lauren was sleeping in. Sending out his pokémon, they all crawled onto the extra bed in the room and immediately fell asleep as Niko took off his shoes and crawled in next to Lauren, accidentally stirring her once again.

As usual, her face was dimly lit by the fire, giving her a usual radiant look. "Evening," She said quietly.

"Hey," Niko said, moving closer to her. "How was your day?"

"It was alright. I missed you," She said, leaning in for a kiss.

"Missed you too," Niko said, returning the kiss and then yawning mid-kiss. "Damn, sorry."

Lauren giggled a little. "Someone's tired."

Niko nodded with an odd look of embarrassment. "Yeah, it's been a long day. But I think I'm ready for my rematch."

"I know you are. I believe in you."

"Thanks…" Niko said before bringing her under his arm and quickly falling asleep.


	36. Steeling for a rematch

**Episode 36: Steeling for a rematch**

"So, what did I miss yesterday?" Niko asked his friends as they all sat at a booth in Canalave City's Pokémon Center.

"Well, not much, really," JJ said. "We talked about where we would head next, and the girls trained a bit. Otherwise, nothing new."

"Oh? Well, where're we going, then?" Niko asked with a hint of curiosity in his tone.

"There are only two major gyms left—Snowpoint and Sunyshore. We figured it'd be easier to just head north to Snowpoint and then back down east to Sunyshore. There's also a contest on the way—in Celestic Town. Works for everyone. But sometime between now and Celestic Town, we do need to buy warmer clothing—past Celestic we'll be travelling through snow."

"Snow? Really?" Niko asked.

"Yeah, snow Niko," Lauren repeated teasingly. "Ever heard of it?"

"Well, I've just never really been around it before. Actually…I can only think of one time, and that was with Brittany and JJ," Niko said, remembering their time at the Sinjoh Ruins. They both replied with a silent "ah" in agreement.

"Well, get used to it. As you can imagine, the Snowpoint Gym Leader uses ice types as well."

"I can't think of that yet. I need to focus on defeating Byron first," Niko said, looking down at his drink. He felt ready for a rematch with the Canalave Gym Leader, who had defeated him the day before last.

"Of course. When will you challenge him?" Brittany asked.

"Today. After we're all done here. My pokémon are ready. We can win this," He said softly. After a while they all got up and walked out of the Pokémon Center towards the gym on the west end of the city.

Before they entered the gym, Lauren pulled Niko aside, waiting for JJ and Brittany to go in. After noticing them pause to wait, she aggressively motioned them away and turned to look up at Niko.

"You got this, Niko," She said, leaning up and kissing him on the cheek. "Also…you need to shave," She said, noticing the small, uneven hairs scattered across his face.

"Is that what you're pulling me aside for?" He asked, lowering her hand. "To talk about my 'beard?'"

"No!" She replied with a laugh. "But…oh god, I'm so nervous…"

"What could you possibly be nervous about saying? Have I done something wrong?"

Once again Lauren laughed, albeit nervously this time. She looked away with a light blush on her face. "No! No! It's just…if you win today—and you will—I wanted to know if you would, well, go on a date with me?"

Niko looked at her with surprise. " _That_ was it? You want to go on a date?" Lauren nodded. "Well, yeah! Of course we can! Where do you want to go?"

"I haven't really thought that far ahead…I was kind of hoping for some input…sorry," Lauren said, feeling ashamed.

"Let's talk about it after the gym battle, alright?" Niko said, placing his hands on her shoulders. "We'll plan it together."

He kissed her on the forehead, and the two walked into the gym to see Brittany, JJ, Byron, the referee, and a man Lauren and Niko both recognized—Clint. Both trainers looked away nervously as the man that happened to be Lauren's father approached them.

"Niko, Lauren," He said. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

"Clint, I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I—"

"Earlier? What?" Lauren asked with surprise. "You two have met?"

Niko and Clint then both explained their run in with the other. Much to Niko's surprise, Lauren wasn't as frustrated with him as he thought, but she wished he had told her earlier. Likewise, Clint was frustrated with Niko for not telling him that Lauren was his girlfriend, but understood the secrecy in a case such as this. They had barely gotten to know each other and, as Byron pointed out (having eavesdropped on the conversation), it wouldn't have been the easiest of conversations to have without Lauren there as well. Ultimately, the three came to an understanding, giving Niko time and space for his rematch.

"We should talk later, if possible," Clint said to Lauren.

"Sure, Dad. But why are you here for Niko's battle?"

"I had no idea you were in town. And like I said, I ferried Niko to Iron Island yesterday. I'd at least like to see how his battle went," He then turned to Brittany and JJ. "I hope my daughter hasn't given you two much trouble."

"Not at all! Lauren's been a pleasure to have!" JJ said. Togepi cheered in agreement.

"It's been really nice to have someone there to compete in contests with me. Lauren's a great partner to have," Brittany said diplomatically and with a sincere smile. Lauren blushed a little in response to her friend's kind words, and tried to distract her thoughts my watching Niko's battle.

The referee re-stated the rules of the match for Niko and Byron, and once he finished, both trainers summoned their pokémon.

"Grotle, I choose you!" Niko shouted.

"Steelix, you're up!" Byron called out, thrusting his shovel into the air as he tossed a pokéball with his other hand. "Dragonbreath!"

"Grotle, energy ball!" Niko directed. Grotle's bushes began to glow as he unleashed a sphere of pure energy at steelix. It collided with the dragon fire, leading to a momentary stalemate that grotle broke with a heavy stream of razor leaves which, like energy ball, were aimed at one spot on steelix—under its jaw.

Byron and steelix tried to dodge the razor leaf, but grotle kept up, not losing sight of the spot. The iron snake roared out in pain before lurching its entire body to the side and using iron tail close to the ground, sliding it across the relatively uneven battlefield towards grotle.

"Turn and jump it!" Niko shouted. Grotle nodded, rotating his body to the right and leaping over the thinner end of the tail, catching his hind legs on it and falling over. "Grotle, get up!" He then saw steelix arching its head towards grotle, preparing to use dragonbreath. "Now grotle!"

The grove pokémon lurched up, sending an energy ball through the air to hit steelix square in the jaw, forcing the dragonbreath upwards towards the ceiling. Niko then commanded grotle to use razor leaf once more, which hit steelix in the jaw again.

"Steelix, let's give them hell! Use dragonbreath!"

"Energy ball!" Niko shouted. Once more, the two attacks collided. "Remember what we learned, grotle. What you did on Iron Island. Keep that in mind, and _don't_ give up!"

Grotle nodded, summoning another energy ball to halt the dragonbreath, and a third to finally hit steelix once more in the jaw. The iron snake fell back, nearly crushing the empty stands behind it.

"Steelix is unable to battle, grotle wins! Leader Byron will now send out his second pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Bronzor, you're up!" Byron shouted.

"Grotle, return. Good job, buddy. You did great. Luxio, I choose you!" Niko shouted, tossing the feline pokémon's ball into the air. "Use charge!"

"Bronzor, hypnosis!" Byron commanded.

"Keep using charge, buddy…" Niko said. "We got this. Now, run forward and use bite!"

Luxio bounded forward, dodging the hypnosis rings by hiding behind a pointed rock in the middle of the field. Once he got Niko's nod, the spark pokémon burst forward again, using charge to keep it moving. When luxio was in range, he lunged at bronzor, teeth completely bared. Landing on the mirror-like pokémon, he viciously bit down, refusing to let go.

"Bronzor, gyro ball!"

"Thunderfang!" Niko shouted. Luxio's bite then sent surges of electricity into bronzor via his teeth, electrocuting the steel type and temporarily paralyzing it. "Now, use spark!"

"Extrasensory!" Byron shouted. Bronzor's body began to glow slightly as luxio felt an odd sensation run through him. He immediately let go, giving bronzor room to attack. "Gyro ball!"

The bronze pokémon spun around viciously, hurdling towards luxio, who was only a few feet away, and slammed into the electric type, dragging him along the rocky terrain while moving at a high speed. The spark pokémon then slammed into a rock on the other end of the field, close to Niko.

"Luxio, we can do this. _You_ can do this," Niko said, a hint of determination in his voice. Luxio slowly got up, bronzor hovering over him. "Use charge once more!"

"Break luxio with extrasensory!" Byron shouted, thrusting his shovel outwards. Bronzor attempted to, but the attack didn't seem to be working. Luxio was far too focused to bother with bronzor.

Niko could see that the charge was successful, since sparks were constantly emitting from the dark-haired feline. He smirked—luxio was ready to attack.

"Luxio, use spark!" Niko shouted. Just like against Fantina, luxio cried out, releasing as much electricity as it possibly could. Sparks shot out in every direction with an unusual amount of force—even breaking some smaller rocks in the process. Bronzor flew backwards in a spin, overwhelmed by the attack. "Now, charge and then bite on bronzor!" Niko shouted, thrusting his fist forward.

Luxio burst forward at lightning speed, coming upon bronzor quicker than the mirror-like pokémon could react. He leapt into the air and landed on top of bronzor, slamming them both to the ground and sinking his teeth into the steel body.

"Thunderfang!" Niko shouted.

"Hypnosis!" Byron commanded. Bronzor's eyes glowed red as rings shot out from them, hitting luxio just as the former fainted.

"Bronzor is unable to battle, luxio wins! Leader Byron will now send out his third and final pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Return, luxio," Niko said to the unconscious spark pokémon. "You did a great job, buddy. Grotle, you're up!" He shouted, once again summoning the grass type.

"I'm impressed, Niko," Byron said as he returned bronzor. "I guess your brief training on Iron Island did pay off. Well, maybe. Bastiodon will be the judge of that. Go!" He shouted, summoning the massive shield pokémon. "Bastiodon, this is it! Use ancientpower!"

"Grotle, block the ancientpower with energy ball!" Niko shouted. Grotle obliged, his bushes glowing bright white as he launched energy ball after energy ball at each fossilized rock, breaking them. When he finished, grotle panting heavily, exhausted from simply blocking one of bastiodon's attacks.

"Flash cannon!" Byron commanded.

"Grotle, dodge if you can and use razor leaf!" Niko shouted. The grove pokémon nodded, trying to shift his body to the right before getting hit by the beam of bright light, knocking him down to the ground. "Grotle, you got this. I believe in you!"

Slowly, but surely, the grove pokémon stood back up. Byron then commanded bastiodon to use ancientpower, to which Niko and grotle responded with razor leaf. The leaves, as sharp as they were, hardly made an effort in stopping the flurry of rocks hurdling towards grotle. Each rock hit grotle, knocking it to the ground. The grass type slowly got back up, launching a final energy ball before collapsing once more, defeated. Fortunately, the attack did hit bastiodon, causing it to wince.

"Grotle is unable to battle, bastiodon wins! Challenger Niko will use his next pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Prinplup, you're up!" Niko shouted, summoning his third pokémon after choosing not to use luxio, who was asleep and might not survive an attack from bastiodon while sleeping. "Use water pulse!"

"Prinp!" The penguin cried out victoriously, raising his flippers into the air and summoning a pulsating orb of water. He tossed it across the field towards bastiodon, who blocked it with ancientpower. Prinplup then charged forward towards bastiodon, flippers stretched out.

"Flash cannon!" Byron called out.

"Prinplup, metal claw to block!" Niko shouted. The penguin halted in his tracks, covering his face with his flippers, which were now glowing light gray. The burst of light collided with prinplup, forcing him backwards, but hardly harmed in the process. Prinplup uncovered his face to look at bastiodon, and once more charged forward. "Use water pulse!"

As soon as prinplup got closer, he jumped into the air and threw down a water pulse on bastiodon, causing it to cringe from the water splashing over it. Niko then commanded the penguin to use bubblebeam, and prinplup obliged by unleashing a stream of bubbles at bastiodon's shield-like face.

"Bastiodon, flash cannon!" Byron shouted again. The fossilized pokémon unleashed another powerful beam of light at prinplup, who attempted to block with metal claw, but nearly failed to do so, and was knocked to the ground in the process. Prinplup quickly got back on his feet, but was hit with ancientpower. "Finish it off with flash cannon!"

"Prinplup, block with metal claw!" Niko shouted. The penguin stood back up, gathering all of his available energy to retaliate, blocking the flash cannon and preventing the beam of light from harming him. "Now, move forward!"

"Huh?" Byron muttered. With unusual strength, prinplup dug into the ground, slowly taking step-by-step towards his opponent. When he got close enough, bastiodon ended the flash cannon and used ancientpower, to which prinplup retaliated with metal claw, slashing and breaking each of the rocks. "Flash cannon!"

"Dodge and use water pulse!" Niko shouted. Prinplup dove to the right, sliding onto the rocky terrain and scrambling back up to conjure a water pulse. The penguin shot the pulse at bastiodon's unprotected left side, causing the shield pokémon to howl in pain. "Now, finish it off with bubblebeam!"

"PRINP!" Prinplup cried out, opening his beak and blasting out a jet of bubbles, hitting bastiodon once more in the side. He kept this up until his opponent fell to the ground, unable to get back up.

"Bastiodon is unable to battle, prinplup wins! The victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!" The referee declared.

Niko sighed a heavy breath of relief as prinplup ran up to him, arms out wide. "You won this, buddy. You, and grotle, and luxio. I'm so proud of you."

Prinplup embraced Niko tightly, and the two sat there for a minute before they were surrounded by Lauren, Brittany, JJ, Clint, Byron, and bastiodon.

"Niko," Byron began. "You battled excellently. You have proven to me that you know how to stand up to steel types even when you are at a disadvantage. For that, I am proud of you, and can now award you with the Mine Badge."

Byron reached into his pocket and held out a small bronze and silver badge with three stones surrounded by what looked like three pickaxes combined. He took the badge and showed it to prinplup, who cheered happily.

"Best of luck in your gym challenge, Niko. And to you too, Lauren," Byron said with joy. Niko and Lauren both responded pleasantly before exiting the gym with Brittany and JJ following them.

As they exited the gym, Clint yelled for Lauren's name. Turning around, the blue-haired trainer looked up at her father with a curious expression.

"Lauren…there's so much to talk about. Why haven't you stopped by to visit?" He asked, looking weary.

"Dad, I'm sorry," Lauren replied, head hanging low. "I should have gone to see you. I was just nervous, I guess. We didn't leave on good terms, and I have new friends, and a boyfriend. It just seemed like a lot."

Clint turned his exhausted look into a more grateful one, leaning in to hug his daughter. Lauren returned the hug. "I'm really proud of you, for all that you've done, with contests _and_ gyms, meeting new friends and pokémon, finding someone that cares about you. You've grown up," He then looked Lauren in the eyes. "Your mother would be over the moon with pride."

For a quick moment, a tear welled up in Lauren's eye. "Thanks, Dad. Do you want to get some lunch with us?"

Clint looked at his watch, and nodded. "I've got some time before I have to get to work. I took off the morning to watch the gym battle. By the way, Niko, you were very impressive out there. Hard to believe that was a rematch."

Niko rubbed the back of his head nervously at the compliment. "Heh, thanks Clint. That means a lot."

The group then turned off towards the port to get some food with Lauren's Dad, ready to leave Canalave City and continue on their adventure towards Celestic Town.


	37. Discharging the rogue fossils

**Episode 37: Discharging the rogue fossils**

"Sorry I couldn't find anything else to wear," Lauren said as she and Niko sat down at their table, adorned with patterned mats on a thin glass table. "I'd rather buy more clothes that I have to carry around, and renting clothes is expensive," she explained as she looked up at her boyfriend with a slight look of shame.

Niko returned the look with a mixture of curiosity and surprise. "Really? You apologize for the weirdest things, Lauren," He said as he picked up the menu, eyes widening at the prices.

"I just wanted this to be a nice evening, and here I am in my contest getup," she continued, also looking at the menu.

"You look great in anything. I wouldn't worry about it," Niko responded, perusing the menu for something reasonably priced.

Lauren blushed a little, but Niko didn't notice. "Thanks…"

"This is not a cheap place," Niko said plainly, although Lauren could tell he was disturbed by it.

"Did we make a bad choice?"

"Not at all. You're right, we should have a nice evening," Niko put down the menu and looked at her. "Yeah, you really do look nice," He said as he looked at her blue flower dress, dark eyes, light blue hair that seemed to be losing its dye, revealing hints of brown hair underneath. Lastly, her face was lean and finely-shaped complete with a small, innocent smile. Altogether, she looked absolutely radiant in his opinion.

They then talked briefly about the travelling ahead. It had been two days since Niko's rematch with Byron, in which he managed to eke out a win from the Canalave Gym Leader. Now, they were off to Celestic Town, where Lauren and Brittany would each compete for their final contest ribbon.

So far, the two have been focusing extensively on their context performances, specifically less on learning new moves or battling and more on their style. This was particularly true for Lauren, who didn't need more battling practice. During the previous couple of days both coordinators were stressed out more than usual, leading Niko and JJ to give them some space while they focused on their performances while the boys worked on Niko's training.

Niko was starting to focus next on his gym battle in Snowpoint City, which would be against ice types. He certainly wanted to focus on training cranidos who, as a rock type, would be helpful. It was also a good chance to get to know his newest pokémon better, and as those two days went on, he got to know cranidos really well, specifically his habits. The dinosaur-like pokémon was very energetic, always running around trying to headbutt the other pokémon, but was stopped by prinplup's bubblebeam, which seemed to rein in cranidos' natural tendency to hit things. As far as training was concerned, Niko was making attempts to teach cranidos ancientpower, and he found help from Brittany's tangrowth, whenever the vine pokémon wasn't busy training with his coordinator.

Niko was also trying to work with luxio, who was disappointed in himself for falling asleep during the rematch against Byron. Quickly figuring this out, Niko tried to reassure luxio that him falling asleep wasn't his fault, but bronzor's. Seeing that verbal reassurance didn't help, Niko pitted luxio against other pokémon to prove to him that he was strong. Occasionally, he would fight his teammates—particularly cranidos, who also needed the training—but also JJ's pokémon. Luxio particularly enjoyed battling growlithe, as the two were starting to get along more with each passing day. Niko didn't see a noticeable change in luxio's mood over those days, but he did see the feline-like pokémon making progress in other areas.

Lauren smiled as she looked down at her drink—a soda. She felt comfortable around Niko. At first, it was difficult to admit this to herself—she didn't exactly hold a positive view of him initially. To her, he seemed to be somewhat arrogant and bossy. He didn't really treat her with the respect that she believed she deserved, especially when she hardly did anything to him beyond a simple teasing.

But as she got to know him more, and from testimony from Brittany and JJ, she began to see in him what they did—a kinder, gentler person who cared about his friends and his pokémon, even if he didn't always show it. The way he treated his team when they won, and even when they lost bought out a new side of him that she hadn't seen, and she found it attractive. In that moment at dinner, as she did in Amity Park, in the rain where they kissed, and every day in between, she felt something for him that she hadn't felt for a boy before. And she was beyond glad that he felt the same way as far as she was concerned.

"So…" she began, "tell me something from your childhood."

Niko looked up with a start. "My childhood…?" She nodded. "Why?"

"For conversation's sake."

"Ah, right. Sorry…not much of a small talker," he then dove into his mind, searching for something worth revealing from his childhood. "Well, I could tell you the time that I met JJ," Lauren seemed particularly piqued by this recollection, and so Niko continued. "I was about…14 or 15 at the time, and Fay and I were in school in Pallet Town. I'd known Fay for a couple of years at the point, and we were pretty close friends. Occasionally he would mention this guy that he called 'JJ.' No idea who the guy was, but he always seemed like a klutz when Fay would tell me a story about him. He also said 'uh' and 'um' a lot in his speech, at least according to Fay.

"And so, one day in school, we got a new kid in our class. He was a transfer from Viridian City, and his name was Jeremy. He was this short, kinda fat, curly-haired kid, and Fay happened to know him from somewhere. So, after class Fay and JJ reconnected, and that's how I met him. I didn't see much of him that year, since he was usually helping out his family at their convenience store. In fact, I didn't see him a whole lot outside of class until we all went on our adventure together. Now that I think about it, I should have expected him to join us. He always wanted to battle gyms and be a pokémon trainer."

"Sounds like you've become good friends since then," Lauren said with a kind smile.

"Yeah, we definitely have. He hardly stutters or pauses his speech anymore. I think that came from a growth in his confidence over time. He's been through a lot. Not necessarily bad times, but he's had his own obstacles to deal with, as we all have."

They continued talking through dinner until it was time to head back to the Pokémon Center. Walking through the streets of Jubilife City, hand in hand, they appreciated the city life and all of its wonders.

"Have you ever been in a city like this before?" Lauren asked as they walked through downtown Jubilife.

"Similar cities. Saffron City in Kanto is kind of like this. Same with Goldenrod in Johto, and Lilycove in Hoenn. Each of them are some of the biggest cities in their region. All great places to visit."

"I want to visit them all one day," Lauren said excitedly. "Hopefully we can do it together."

Niko chuckled. "Yeah, hopefully."

"Say…do you know what you'll do when you're done? Travelling, I mean. Like, do you know where you'd like to settle down?"

Niko seemed taken aback by the question. "I—no, I haven't really thought much about it, actually. Ideally, I'd like to see more of the world before I make that determination. Who knows, maybe I haven't found where I want to live or to settle down in."

"I hope you can find that place. And hopefully I can help you find it," Lauren said, leaning into him. Niko unlocked his hand and placed it around their shoulder, and they continued on to the Pokémon Center.

Back at the center, Brittany and JJ were in the battlefield, finishing up on some training. JJ had spent time helping Niko's pokémon with their training, and Brittany spent time working on her own things. Lauren's pokémon, on the other hand, attempted practicing some performances, but found the lack of their trainer to be somewhat of a problem, and weren't as successful.

"Thanks for helping out, JJ," Niko said, patting his friend on the back.

"No problem. Cranidos had some pent-up energy that it needed to let loose, but we calmed it down pretty quickly. The only other issue was luxio. He seemed to be having trouble releasing electricity."

"Why do you think that is?" Niko asked, looking over at the spark pokémon, who was asleep on the corner of the field.

"No idea. Maybe something is blocking it? Like, a mental or emotional wall?" JJ asked.

"I'll keep an eye on it, but thanks," Niko said, returning his pokémon to transport them to their room, where they would sleep with Lauren's pokémon on the empty bed.

* * *

After leaving Jubilife City, the group continued east until they got to Hearthome, where they would continue on towards Solaceon town in the northeast and then northwest towards Celestic Town. Much of the path until then was relatively familiar to the group, particularly the path from Jubilife to Oreburgh, which they had now travelled for the fourth time (for Lauren, it was the sixth time). They decided to take a stop in Oreburgh City for the night.

While on route 203, which connected the two cities, Niko tried working with luxio once more. Despite the spark pokémon being in tip-top shape, and showing few signs of any emotional issues, it was having difficulty using electric type moves, for whatever reason. Niko continued to watch luxio, in hopes that maybe he could figure something out.

As he was about to go to bed that night, he saw luxio's ears quiver for a moment, as if he sensed something. Sitting up, he looked over at the electric type, who was also sitting up now. Moments later, luxio leapt off of the bed and towards the door, waking up a couple of the other pokémon in the process.

"Luxio, what's wrong?" Niko asked, getting out of bed and waking Lauren up in the process, getting dressed quickly, and heading over towards the door.

"Niko…?" Brittany asked as she also got up with her pokémon. JJ was last to wake up, albeit groggily.

"Luxio heard something. Not sure what, though," He said, opening the door and following the feline-like pokémon out into the hallway. Freed from the confines of the room, luxio bounded down the hallway towards the lobby of the Pokémon Center. There, Niko found Nurse Joy standing behind her desk with a look of horror on her face.

Across from her, through a shattered glass front door, stood a collection of what seemed to be fossil pokémon. Niko recognized an aerodactyl, armaldo, cradily, kabutops, and a bastiodon. He then watched them all charge into the Pokémon Center, forcing Joy to abandon her desk and go into the emergency rooms to check on her patient pokémon.

"What the hell is happening?" Niko yelled out, watching the ancient pokémon wreak havoc on the center. "Luxio, we need to stop them."

Luxio nodded, running towards the aerodactyl, albeit at a slower pace than usual, which made Niko realize he couldn't even use charge to quicken his pace. The aerodactyl noticed luxio, and quickly spun around to use ancientpower, launching a barrage of rocks at the electric type, knocking him backwards on the ground. Meanwhile Lauren, Brittany, and JJ, along with their pokémon, attempted to find the other pokémon, most of whom were in other rooms of the Pokémon Center or had left.

Just as Niko was kneeling down to help luxio, a scientist ran into the wrecked Pokémon Center, looking around desperately. "Is everyone alright?"

Niko stood up, looking bemused. "Yeah, we're alright. What's going on?"

"Something happened with the lab...we're still trying to figure it out, but we need to rein in these fossil pokémon, and quickly."

"Are they just contained to this building?" Lauren asked. The scientist shook his head in response.

"Fortunately, I think so. I just saw a couple run out of the Pokémon Center just as I got here, but I can't seem to calm them down."

"Well, we can try. C'mon, luxio, let's go," Niko said, helping his spark pokémon up. With grotle, prinplup, staravia, and cranidos at his side, they all ran in the direction aerodactyl went, which was back outside into the streets.

Luckily, chaos had not yet erupted in Oreburgh. As Niko was running outside, he noticed Roark and a woman chasing after the kabutops with a bigger form of cranidos. The headbutt pokémon cheered out towards what looked like his evolution, although the bigger dinosaur didn't seem to hear cranidos.

Niko then turned to his left and saw the aerodactyl unleash a hyper beam on some mining machinery. "Grotle, energy ball! Prinplup, water pulse! Luxio, bite!"

All three attacks were hurled at aerodactyl, the last one taking the most time. Luckily, however, luxio managed to bite onto the fossil's tail as it rose back into the air. Aerodactyl cried out at the two attacks hit it in the side, close to where luxio was biting on to.

"Luxio, hang in there! You can do it!" Niko shouted. "Staravia, go and help luxio. Use double team and wing attack!"

The starling pokémon swooped towards aerodactyl, wings glowing white as he duplicated himself and slammed into aerodactyl, knocking it off course and back towards the ground. Both the fossil and luxio crashed onto the street below, rolling away from one another. Aerodactyl got back up first and launched another ancientpower at luxio, who was too slow to dodge it.

"Niko! Help!" Lauren shouted as she found herself against a wall with bastiodon moving towards her. Monferno ran towards the shield pokémon, fist glowing. However, prinplup ran in to assist using water pulse. Grotle and cranidos then found themselves locked in a fight with a cradily-which quickly became a losing match.

Niko then turned back to luxio, who was struggling to fight against the aerodactyl. Niko then, without hesitation, rushed forward to get in between the two pokémon.

"Don't you _dare_ use another attack on luxio!" Niko shouted. Aerodactyl didn't listen, instead rushing forward and nearly hitting Niko. Instead, luxio got up and somehow shoved Niko out of the way. Niko then heard a roar emit from luxio, and a wave of electricity surged in every conceivable direction, paralyzing the aerodactyl. Niko looked up through the sparks as luxio was glowing brightly, increasing in size. He was still quadrupedal, and now resembled a fully-grown lion. Much of his body was covered in a thick mane of black fur, mainly around the shoulders and the base of his tail. His eyes were yellow with red sclera, rounded ears with yellow insides, and a blunt muzzle. And, like luxio, his tail had a four-pointed yellow star on it. In shock, Niko pulled out his pokédex:

" _Luxray, the gleam eyes pokémon. Electric type. It can see clearly through walls to track down its prey and seek its lost young_."

"Luxray…" Niko said, looking up at the final stage of what used to be his little shinx. The little, feral shinx was now a tall, powerful luxray. "Luxray, we need to find the other fossil pokémon! Can you help us?"

Luxray nodded, and Niko and the lion-like pokémon ran off, helping JJ, Lauren, or Brittany when possible. Using luxray's x-ray vision, they managed to quickly find the other fossil pokémon and, with luxray's new discharge move, they rounded up the others and moved them back to the lab with the scientist and Roark.

"Niko, Lauren, thank you both," the gym leader said. "I don't know how they got out, but I'm glad we had help placing them back where they belong. At least, for now."

"It was our pleasure. Hope all is well with you."

Roark laughed. "Yeah, hope my Dad is doing alright. You guys did a number on him at his gym, apparently," He laughed even harder when he saw Niko and Lauren's expressions. "Oh man…I remember battling you two so long ago. But it just seems like yesterday. Best of luck to you both. And thanks again."

The group said their farewells to Roark and went back to the Pokémon Center to finally get some sleep. Niko in particular fell asleep feeling a little better, albeit still trying to understand why luxray had his electricity problem in the first place. But it seemed that, whatever was going on with him, the evolution seemed to play a role in solving it. Hopefully he would feel more confident about his new strength and abilities this time around, Niko thought.


	38. Lost in the fog

**Episode 38: Lost in the fog**

The road to Celestic Town took the group back through Hearthome and Solaceon Town. There, the group would rest briefly, re-stock on supplies, but continued on rather quickly. They all wanted to make good time in getting to Celestic Town, which was just northwest of Solaceon Town by about a week or so.

During this time, all four of them were focusing on training. Niko in particular was focusing heavily on cranidos, who was starting to get the gist of ancientpower, thanks to Brittany's tangrowth. His newly evolved luxray was getting better at releasing the new move discharge, as well as adjusting to his newfound size and strength. Prinplup was perfecting his metal claw, a move that Niko hoped might be useful in the upcoming Snowpoint City gym. Grotle was trying to get better at using mega drain, but since he hadn't used the health-sapping move in a while, he was a bit rusty, and the move took some time to get used to again. The only problem this time was staravia, who often seemed bored.

Niko had difficulty training staravia at this point. It was rare that he didn't have some sort of move or combination that he could help learn with his pokémon. This was one of those rare times, and Niko was trying to figure out how staravia could get better. It wasn't that the starling pokémon was unstoppable—far from it—but the bird seemed bored by using its usual moves. It didn't take much pleasure in training, which is something it used to always look forward to, especially when it was practicing aerial ace. Instead, the bird simply flew around, observing the world around him.

Lauren and Brittany were busy practicing for the upcoming contest. Both of them had two ribbons at this point, and both needed only one more ribbon before they qualified for the Grand Festival at Lake Valor, which was coming up in a month and a half. Not knowing if Celestic Town would be the last contest in which they could enter, both were training vigorously with their pokémon, focusing less on learning new moves and more on their specific styles.

Although, Brittany was trying to get pikachu to learn dig which, with JJ's help, she figured out the electric mouse could learn. With this, she started coming up with a new performance idea. Meanwhile, Lauren was focusing on helping lopunny learn the move bounce, which wasn't terribly difficult for the rabbit to learn. The only problem was with landing. Lopunny, with its newfound height, still had some difficulty landing on the ground from high places.

Even JJ was training with his pokémon. Togepi, oddly enough, started to take an interest in battling after watching his friends battle against each other for months. After observing so many battles, JJ started to notice the little egg-like pokémon wagging her fingers in a rhythmic motion, like a metronome. Eventually, when JJ was having a practice battle against Niko, as the curly blonde trainer was about to summon umbreon, togepi jumped in front of her trainer, surprising both JJ and Niko.

"Alright, togepi. You want to battle…?" Togepi looked back and nodded. "Alright, then. I guess I'm using togepi."

"I'll use cranidos, then. Make it somewhat even," Niko said, throwing out the dinosaur's pokéball. "Cranidos, use ancientpower!"

Cranidos roared out as he successfully summoned the ancient rocks from thin air and tossed them at togepi. The baby pokémon began wagging her fingers again like a metronome, and out of nowhere a hyper beam emitted from her mouth, blasting through the rocks and hitting cranidos.

"What the hell…?" JJ asked, running over to the now unconscious togepi. "Was that…?"

"Metronome," Lauren said out loud, running over to join the group. "You know what it does, right?"

"Yeah, I've seen it before. But…my god, I had no idea togepi could learn it. No wonder she was itching to battle, she wanted to use this move!" He hugged togepi, which seemed to wake her up. "You did a great job, togepi. I'm very proud of you!"

Togepi looked up and smiled, giggling a little.

* * *

The following day, the group made it past the place were Lauren had caught buneary, and were now in unfamiliar territory, meaning that they were making progress on their journey. However, as they continued north, they began to notice the road ahead getting foggier.

This wasn't unusual—they've dealt with fog before, even if one of them got injured as a result. Deciding to continue through it, albeit slowly, the four of them made significant progress before the fog got too heavy for them, and they set up camp for the remainder of the day.

"What's up?" Lauren said, sitting down next to Niko, who was leaning against a tree. "You seem quiet today. Which is weird, because you don't have a reason to be a stressed."

"It's not that. It's staravia. He seems…bored, or without purpose. It's not a big deal, but I wish I could do something about it."

"You care a lot about your pokémon. That might be what I admire about you the most." She leaned in to hug him. "I think you'll figure something out."

Niko looked down at her and smiled. She was right, he could solve this problem.

It wasn't until the following morning that they began travelling again. That morning, the fog was light, and didn't seem to get in their way. By the end of the day, they had made it to the edge of a mountain range, suggesting that they might get there sooner than they had originally expected.

The closer they got to the mountains, though, the heavier the fog soon became. Niko eventually stopped and looked around, only seeing Lauren at his side, holding his hand. "Um…Lauren…"

"Where is everyone?" She asked, also looking around frantically. "How could we lose them!?"

Niko shook his head. "This has happened before. Let's just try calling their names out first." They both yelled out for JJ and Brittany, but somehow they couldn't seem to find them. _How the hell did we lose them?_ "We need to work on our communication, this is ridiculous." He then pulled out a pokéball containing staravia, and summoned the bird. "Hey, buddy," Niko said, waving frantically. He could barely see staravia and assumed the bird could barely see him as well. "We need to find JJ and Brittany. Can you fly up into the air and tell me if you can see them?"

He could have sworn staravia nodded in response and flew up, because he could barely see the starling anymore. He turned back to Lauren and noticed the concerned expression on her face. Embracing her, he began to feel her loosen a little, signaling that she felt calmer.

* * *

Brittany and JJ looked around in the fog as well in search of their friends. Since neither Niko nor Lauren were responding to their voices, it must've been some time since they inadvertently split up. For them, it made some sense, since they would go up to an hour without saying much. Nevertheless, the two continued walking for several minutes before hearing something moving above them. Looking up, Brittany could hardly see anything except an object hurdling through the air at a high speed. Curious, she tapped JJ, who also looked up.

"What was that?" He asked.

"No idea…wait," Brittany said, squinting. "I think that's staravia…?" She then called out for the bird, who heard her voice but couldn't determine the origin of it. Brittany continued to repeat the starling's name without success. After a while, it seemed that staravia gave up and flew off. "Dammit…" She said with a hint of frustration, kicking a small rock on the ground.

* * *

Staravia meanwhile was flying high in the air, a massive cloud of fog underneath him. From his perspective, it was actually quite nice, being able to see the world around him. It also gave him time to think. The starling has had plenty of time to think more in the past week or so, since neither he nor Niko can think of things to work on or improve.

It concerned staravia, to be sure. He felt more like a failure than anything. And it wasn't for a lack of trying, or even for a lack of imagination. He knows Niko is used to training bird type pokémon, so if he couldn't figure something out, then he _really_ couldn't figure something out. Staravia looked up to Niko in this regard. He felt that his trainer really understands the art of training, and is disciplined enough to continue forward despite failure. He's often listened in on Niko's stories of his adventures before coming to this land, and it has inspired staravia to keep wanting to improve.

But how can he? He's the fastest on his team _by far_. He can land all of his attacks quickly and effectively. What more _is there_?

Staravia understands that evolution is always a possibility, but how could he evolve? Last time he did, when he was but a youngling, he evolved out of necessity. Necessity to win, to help his new trainer, and to get stronger. What does he need now? How does Niko need his help now? And, more importantly, how does he get stronger now?

Staravia considered all of this while flying around, still trying to find his friends but not exactly succeeding. How does Niko expect him to find _anything_ in this cloud?

Instead, staravia simply flew around, enjoying the afternoon sun shining down on him, giving him the life force that he needed. It felt nice to fly so freely, seeing the wider world underneath and around him. It made him glad that he ran into Niko and Lauren, and decided to join his trainer on his journey.

After a while of gliding around the area, he found a small ledge on the side of a steep mountain to perch on. For a while longer, staravia watched the world around him, and even saw some other birds enjoying the world as much as he was.

He looked below him on a lower ledge, and saw a nest of newly-hatched starly sitting in their nest. Smiling, he watched at the mother staraptor—which looked a lot like staravia's own mother, or what he remembers of her—returned to the nest with food for her offspring. Eventually she looked up and nodded in an oddly friendly manner.

Usually staraptors were confrontational creatures. Staravia remembered his mother being overly protective of her children. He returned the nod before flying off again, leaving the family be.

And that's when it hit him, oddly enough. He needed to find Niko again, and he needed to try. _That_ was his need. It was his way to improve. He would do anything for his trainer. Anything for the human that never gave up on him, and would never give up on him in the future.

Suddenly, staravia felt stronger, felt his wings flapping through the wind more powerfully than before. It was an odd sensation, but he used it to his advantage to burst through the fog and into the mountainside below, eventually finding JJ and Brittany sitting near a ravine.

"Staravia!" JJ said, pointing with togepi to the bird. "Wait…no, you're not staravia…"

The starling looked at Niko's friend with a curious stare. He then saw Brittany pull out her pokédex, as she usually did when she saw an unfamiliar pokémon.

Wait, then that must mean…

" _Staraptor, the predator pokémon. It never stops attacking even when its injured. It fusses over the shape of its comb._ "

It was true, staravia did feel some chunk of hair standing up on his head. As he looked around at his wings, he noticed they were much larger than before. His talons were bigger, and his beak was longer.

"You had no idea you evolved, did you…?" JJ asked. When staraptor shook his head, JJ laughed. "Either way, we need to find Niko and Lauren. Do you have any idea where they are?"

Staraptor shook his head again, but shot back into the fog in search of his trainer.

* * *

"Staravia isn't coming back…" Niko said after a while. Lauren noticed how worried he was getting, and embraced him this time.

"He will, don't worry…" Lauren said, leaning against him. "This is a pretty think fog, I can't imagine he's having an easy time finding the others."

Suddenly, Niko heard wind ripping apart nearby. Looking in that direction, he soon saw a massive black and gray bird tear through the fog and into the path he and Lauren were standing in. Niko looked up at his bird in shock. "You…evolved…?"

Staraptor nodded, pointing to Niko's pokédex. He pulled it out and listened to the dex entry on it. He then walked up and pat staraptor's comb lightly. The predator pokémon then wagged his head around to get the comb back in place, forcing a laugh out of Niko and Lauren.

"Well, I'm glad you're back. Did you find Brittany and JJ?"

Staraptor nodded, and started flying in the direction he had come from, albeit slower so his trainer could follow along.

Eventually, they made it back, noticing Brittany and JJ sitting at the edge of a ravine. Niko stepped as far from the edge as he could, since he was afraid of heights. After talking for a bit, the four decided to spend what little they had left of the day resting along the ledge, waiting for the fog to dissipate. It didn't, and they all fell asleep waiting.

The following morning, the fog was still thick, but staraptor and Niko managed to find a path going up the mountain that didn't involve walking along the ravine. As they walked, Niko looked up staraptor in the pokédex, and found some new moves that he could learn with the predator pokémon. Staraptor agreed, and they would begin after the Celestic Town Pokémon Contest, in preparation for their seventh gym battle in Snowpoint City.

"Staraptor," Niko said as they led the group, with the bird pokémon flapping his wings heavily to help clear away the fog, "I'm glad that I caught you in the Eterna Forest."

Staraptor, without looking at his trainer, nodded quietly, continuing to flap his wings, eager to get around the canyon they were walking in. But in his mind, he was joyful upon hearing the compliment. It inspired him to continue working as hard as he could, both for his trainer and for himself.


	39. Belief

**Episode 39: Belief**

Niko liked Celestic Town from the moment he got there. It is said that Celestic Town is one of the oldest towns in the Sinnoh region. Makes sense, since it sits on the edge of Mt. Coronet which, according to the book on myths that Niko bought at the start of his journey, is at the center of most of the legends in Sinnoh.

They arrived in town days after staravia evolved into staraptor and helped the group get through the thick fog on route 210. During that time they all continued training when they could, since the fog didn't make it easy. Instead, they hurried to Celestic Town and began training in the Pokémon Center's practice battlefield. As usual, Niko was working with his pokémon in preparation for his gym battle in Snowpoint City. By now, cranidos was getting used to using ancientpower, as well as used to Niko's training methods. Luxray was getting better at controlling his discharge, and grotle and prinplup continued with the moves that they were already using.

By contrast, Brittany and Lauren were seemingly more stressed out due to their upcoming contest. Since both of them only needed one ribbon to qualify for the Grand Festival, they were both planning on gunning hard for it. Of the two, Brittany seemed more confident, since she was still riding her win in Jubilife a little. Pikachu practiced dig enough for her to feel confident in the mouse's abilities. And, as far as battling was concerned, she felt like she could hold her own.

Lauren, on the other hand, was feeling far more stressed out, and Brittany and JJ were quick to notice. Niko didn't, and the blue-haired coordinator confronted him about it the evening before the contest.

Lauren huffed as she sat down on the bed in the Pokémon Center. Niko was reading his book on myths for anything related to Celestic Town when she furiously sat down on the bed, which got his attention.

"You alright?" He asked, putting the book down on his chest.

"No, of course I'm not." She huffed, looking away from him.

"Is there something I did wrong…?" Niko asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes…I mean, no…I don't know!" She said as she covered her face with her hands. "I'm just so nervous and stressed."

Niko sat up next to her, rubbing her back. "Why are you stressed? Did I say something wrong? I feel like I do that from time to time."

Lauren smiled slightly, getting the joke. "Well, you see…I don't think you realized how stressed out I was about this contest until I made it clear to you that I am. I—I need your support, Niko."

"But you've got it. I'm here now."

"But but but…" She sighed. "I guess you're right. I don't know if I can do this. We don't know if they'll be another contest to compete in."

"You don't know that, you're right. Which means that maybe there will be one," Niko said reassuringly. "But don't think ahead right now. Focus on just winning this contest. You can do it. I believe in you." He clasped her small hand in his. She looked up at him and smiled, leaning in for a kiss.

* * *

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Celestic Town Pokémon Contest! I'm your host, Marian, and today we've got quite the show for you today! We have coordinators from all over Sinnoh and beyond competing with style and grace befitting a coordinator. For those unfamiliar, let me go through the different stages of a contest:

"The first round is the Performance Round. Each coordinator dresses up and enters a pokémon to perform. Occasionally, contests will require coordinators to use two pokémon in a performance. This one does not. Coordinators may use as many moves as they would like within the three-minute time limit. In the second round—the Battle Round—coordinators will face off against one another using the same pokémon from before, or a different one if they so choose to. Occasionally, like with the Performance Round, coordinators may be required to use two pokémon in a Battle Round, but this one will not. The winner of the Battle Round will be granted the Contest Ribbon. Now, without further ado, join me in welcoming our first coordinator, from here in Vermilion City, please welcome Brittany!"

The brunette walked onto the stage to face the relatively small crowd gathered in Celestic Town's Contest Hall. This contest was the polar opposite of Jubilife—there were only 8 coordinators competing this time, two of them being Lauren and Brittany. And only four would advance to the Battle Round. Brittany knew this going into the contest, and as she looked out onto the crowd, she took a deep breath and summoned pikachu.

"Alright pikachu, let's start off with dig!" She shouted. The electric mouse cheerfully leaped into the air, spinning around gracefully before launching downwards into the ground. Moments later, she popped out on the opposite end of the stage, directly behind Brittany. She kept doing this, creating a small network of tunnels underneath the stage. "Now, volt tackle!"

"Pika!" She shouted, gathering herself at the center of the stage and bursting towards the first hole she dug, electricity coating her. Seconds later, she popped out of a random hole, and dove back into the nearest hole. After repeating this process a few times, pikachu completed the performance, bowing to the crowd alongside her trainer before the two were dismissed.

Brittany joined Lauren in the backroom moments later. "Great job, Brittany," She said, trying her best to look cheerful. Noticing this, Brittany placed a hand on her friend.

"You can do this. Don't get nervous, alright?" Lauren nodded, taking her friend's advice to heart. After a few more performances, it was Lauren's turn this time.

"Roselia, you're up!" Lauren called out, summoning the thorn pokémon. "Use toxic spikes!"

Roselia opened up the roses on her arms and released dozens of small purple spikes all across the floor. Lauren then commanded roselia to use bullet seed while spinning around, therefore breaking the toxic spikes. The grass type obliged, extending both of her rose-arms and spinning in the center of the stage, aiming the rose at a slightly downward angle. She managed to hit all but one of the spikes which, for a first official performance, didn't seem too bad in Lauren's mind. Despite her nervousness, she was pleased with roselia's performance.

Walking into the backroom, she sat down with roselia in her lap, looking happy. Brittany noticed this, and the two engaged in conversation while they watched the last few coordinators compete. Then, after the eighth contestant, Marian revealed the final four moving on to the Battle Round.

"It will be…Brittany, Miko, Lauren, and Whitney!" Marian shouted cheerfully, showing the two match-ups. Brittany was up against Miko, and Lauren against Whitney, with the former going first.

"Best of luck, Brit," Lauren said, clasping Brittany's hand as she stood up to walk out, fixing her red sparkling dress in the process. She nodded, looking back at Lauren with an ambitious stare.

"And now, the first match of the Battle Round, Brittany versus Miko!" Marian announced as Brittany and Miko—a short black-haired woman with glasses—appeared on the stage.

"Sneasel, you're up!" Miko shouted in a quiet but fierce tone.

"Vespiquen, you're up!" Brittany commanded. "Use power gem!"

"Sneasel, agility into ice shard!" Miko called out. Sneasel then began charging towards vespiquen, claws baring, and conjured several small sharp shards of ice and threw them at vespiquen while closing the gap between the two. Vespiquen leaned back, raising her abdomen upwards and firing off a barrage of pink gems to meet the successfully meet the shards. The attacks colliding, with sneasel barely dodging the gems that didn't happen to meet with a shard. "Use metal claw!"

"Vespiquen, bug bite!" Brittany shouted out, thrusting her finger forward commandingly. Vespiquen leaned back forward, using the momentum from lowering her abdomen to land directly on sneasel's claw, crunching down on the side of the claw and refusing to let go. "Fling sneasel into the air and use attack order to keep it there!"

Miko looked shocked as vespiquen, with her relatively small upper body, managed to carry sneasel into the air, much less launch the dark type into the air. Vespiquen then held her arms out as a horde of bees charged after sneasel, grabbing onto it and keeping it suspended in the air.

"Let go and use power gem to finish sneasel off!" Brittany shouted. Vespiquen nodded, returning the bees from whence they came and spinning forwards, her abdomen raised as sneasel descended to the ground. "Now!"

A series of gems launched out of vespiquen's abdomen, hitting sneasel and briefly launching it back into the air before it crashed into the ground, defeated.

"Sneasel is unable to battle, vespiquen wins! The victory goes to Brittany from Celestic Town!" Marian shouted.

"Great job, vespiquen! The training is paying off!" Brittany said, hugging vespiquen before seeing Miko approach her to congratulate her. "Hey, great match. That sneasel is really fast!"

"Thanks, your vespiquen really is something, though. You should be proud of yourself. I'm rooting for you to win this," Miko said, shaking Brittany's hand. The brunette smiled before returning vespiquen and walking into the backroom as Lauren and Whitney swapped places with her.

"And now for our second match in the Battle Round—Lauren versus Whitney!" Marian called out.

"Jolteon, you're up!" Whitney shouted.

"Eevee, I choose you!" Lauren said. Eevee had never been in a battle before, and so Lauren didn't know how comfortable she was in using the tiny pokémon. But she decided to take the risk. "Use quick attack!"

"Jolteon, pin missile into thundershock!" Whitney shouted. The electric type shot out a barrage of small yellow pins coated in electric sparks towards eevee, who managed to dodge most of them and slam into her evolutionary stage, knocking jolteon backwards. "Now, quick attack as well!"

"Eevee, bite!" Lauren shouted. She managed to land a hit on jolteon, and lowered Whitney's bar a bit, which pleased her more than she wanted to admit. However, eevee's second move wasn't nearly as successful, as the evolution pokémon got hit in the mouth by jolteon, launching her across the field, rolling as she crashed onto the ground. "Eevee, don't give up. Please don't…" Lauren said desperately. Eevee slowly got back up, but took another quick attack by jolteon, who used pin missile up close.

Eevee cried out from the pins pricking the right side of her body. Lauren panicked, realizing that she made a huge mistake in choosing eevee.

"Jolteon, finish eevee off with thundershock!" Whitney commanded, realizing that how quickly she could wrap this match up.

"Eevee, dodge with quick attack and follow up with bite!" Lauren shouted. Looking up at the yellow bar under her portrait on the monitor, she realized she wasn't doing so well, and the only way to win would be to finish jolteon off, not rely as much on style. Eevee managed to escape the thundershock, but once more failed to bite down on jolteon, who also used quick attack to escape.

The two repeated quick attacks on each other, chasing one another across the stage until eevee tired out and jolteon finished her off with pin missile.

"Eevee is unable to battle, jolteon is the winner! The victory goes to Whitney from Hearthome City!" Marian announced

Lauren balled her hands into fists, angry with herself. Eevee, who had just gotten back up from defeat, noticed this, and walked towards her trainer with her head also down.

"I'm sorry, eevee," Lauren muttered, returning eevee to her pokéball, thanking Whitney for the battle, was quickly breaking it for the backroom and then the lobby, where she sat for some time before catching the second half of Brittany's finals match with Whitney.

"And now…in the finals of the Celestic Town Pokémon Contest, we have Brittany from Vermilion City and Whitney from Hearthome City!" Marian announced as Brittany walked onto the stage to meet her opponent. They exchanged smiles before summoning their two pokémon.

"Piloswine, I choose you!" Whitney shouted.

"Wartortle, you're up!" Brittany commanded. "Use water pulse!"

"Piloswine, icy wind!" Whitney called out. Suddenly the stage got frigid cold, freezing the water pulse and inadvertently making it heavier. Wartortle launched it at piloswine before ducking his head back into his head and rocketing off with skull bash. "Take down!"

The swine pokémon charged at wartortle, slamming into the shell and knocking the turtle pokémon back onto the ground. However, piloswine kept going, dragging wartortle across the stage which inadvertently also dragged Whitney's bar down a little more.

"Wartortle, get out and use aqua tail!" Brittany shouted commandingly. Wartortle popped out and got back up, using his small hands to grab onto piloswine's head and slowly halt the ice type. He then pushed back a little on the swine pokémon before jumping and spinning around, slapping it with his glowing blue tail, spraying water everywhere.

"Piloswine, use—"

"Wartortle, water pulse!" Brittany shouted. Still up close to his opponent, wartortle launched a pulsating ball of water at piloswine's face, once more spraying water everywhere. Now clearly agitated, piloswine used take down again, driving into its opponent with the full weight of its body. "Don't give in, wartortle! You're not that kind of pokémon! LET'S DO THIS!" Brittany shouted with an unusual amount of fire in her voice. Wartortle, hearing this, spun around on its side to use rapid spin. This forced piloswine to a halt once more, giving wartortle a moment to use aqua tail while spinning on the ground, slapping piloswine's feet multiple times with the watery tail.

"Piloswine, earthquake!" Whitney commanded.

"Not so fast!" Brittany commanded, determination still clear in her voice. "Wartortle, water pulse on your tail!"

Wartortle stopped spinning to jump onto his feet before jumping a second time and somersaulting in the air, an orb of water hanging off of his tail. He slammed it down on piloswine's head, knocking the ice type into the ground with a minute left to go.

"Piloswine is unable to battle, wartortle wins! The victory in the Celestic Town Pokémon Contest goes to Brittany from Vermillion City!" Marian announced to the crowd's applause.

Brittany walked onto the stage, first shaking Whitney's hand while wartortle and piloswine acknowledged one another. The brunette then kneeled down to her pokémon and, without a word, hugged him.

"We're going to the Grand Festival, buddy. All because of you."

* * *

Brittany found Niko, JJ, and Lauren standing there in the lobby. As she approached them, wartortle held out the blue contest ribbon in his hand for all of them to see.

"Toge-priiii!" Togepi shouted happily, jumping out of JJ's arms to view the ribbon first-hand.

"Congrats, bud," Niko said, embracing his friend for a hug.

"You did it! You're going to the Grand Festival!" JJ said, also hugging her.

Lauren was last. She looked up at Brittany and, without a word, also hugged her. Nothing else was said between the two.

Back in the Pokémon Center that night, after a long night of talking and celebrating Brittany's victory, Lauren lay down in bed next to Niko. As he was about to turn out the light, he saw a single tear in her eye.

"What's the matter?" He asked, darkening the room with the light switch.

"I messed up."

"How?"

"I wanted to use eevee in that match, but she wasn't ready. I should have known that…" Lauren said, looking away from Niko and towards the window.

"Listen…" Niko said, moving closer to her and embracing her. "You did your best. There's bound to be another contest on our way to Snowpoint or back south towards Lake Valor. And you'll win it this time. I believe in you."

Lauren silently nodded. "Thanks, Niko."

"No problem."

Meanwhile, Brittany lay there listening to the conversation, hoping that, in some way, she could help cheer Lauren up. She went to bed with a million thoughts in her head, one of which was that she was ready for the Grand Festival this time, and was prepared to go all the way.


	40. Fiery ambition

**Episode 40: Fiery ambition**

Niko held onto Lauren as they trudged through the snow. Looking around, they only saw a white expanse caught in between two sets of mountains, limiting the range of their path.

It had been a few days since the Celestic Town Pokémon Contest, and during this time the group packed up and continued their journey towards Snowpoint City, where Niko and Lauren would compete for their seventh gym badge. The only way to Snowpoint City was through the northern routes 216 and 217. Before that, though, the group walked through Mt. Coronet once more, as it was the quickest path (the other being scaling the mountain range, an option none of them preferred). During this time, the four of them prepared for the upcoming trek through the snow, as well as get in some training beforehand, since most of their pokémon likely wouldn't be able to handle the snowy conditions, bar a few. Even so, it's not like any of them wanted to spend time training, and instead get through the snow at quickly as possible first.

For the first day or so, the cold conditions weren't terrible. The group took only a few stops, and by the end of the day they all felt like collapsing. And they did—against the side of one of the mountain ranges, in a small inlet in one of them. There, combusken and monferno helped to warm them up. As they used a variety of fire moves, cranidos—of all pokémon—watched with interest.

"Niko, come here," Lauren said, holding her arms out. The brown-haired trainer—preoccupied with calming cranidos down—nodded and sat down next to his girlfriend against the wall of the inlet. "Cold?"

"Not really. Monferno and combusken did a great job," He said, admiring the well-lit and heated camp they put together. "Are you?"

"Not anymore I'm not," She said, cozying up to him. "JJ, how much longer until we get to Snowpoint City?"

The curly blonde trainer pulled out his map and, after studying it for some time, answered. "Maybe a week to go, if we don't make many stops on the way. We'll be fine, though, so long as monferno and combusken don't lose their ability to breath fire." He said with a laugh at the end.

"Do we have enough supplies to get there?" Niko asked, a concerned expression drawn across his face.

"Ideally, yes. But we might need to actually gather food on the way. Who knows…" JJ said, looking concerned himself.

"Ideally?" Niko raised his voice. "What do you mean, ideally? Didn't we prepare for this, or what?"

"We did, but—"

"But _what_?" niko said, now standing up and staring down at JJ from over the fire. "JJ, we can't just die out here."

"Niko, calm down…" Lauren said, lightly tugging on the bottom of his sweater. "Now's not the time for fighting."

"No, it is Lauren. We all have jobs here. JJ clearly didn't do his."

"THEN WHY DON'T YOU DO IT, HUH? WHY DON'T YOU DO IT IF YOU KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT ALL OF THIS!?" JJ shouted, standing up and facing Niko, the campfire separating them. "Don't you call me out when I see you not doing ANYTHING when we're buying supplies. All you do is spend your time joking around with Lauren and buying those silly drinks for your team. I'm actually trying to make sure we have everything. So is Brittany."

The group was silent for a long while after that, eventually going to sleep without saying another word.

* * *

The following two days were very much the same, only the group was stingier with their limited supplies. They managed to make significant ground, but found themselves constantly exhausted at the end, hardly able to move.

On the third day after Niko and JJ's argument, the curly blonde noticed smoke in the distance. Trudging through the snow towards it, they discovered a lone house, sitting along the mountainside, surrounded by a small cluster of trees. As soon as they curiously approached it, a tall, bearded man walked out, presumably on some errand of sorts.

"Oh, hello there." He said in a friendly manner, waving his hand to the group. "You kids look cold, want to come in?"

"That's oddly convenient…" Niko muttered to himself as they walked forward. "Sure, sir. My name's Niko, and this is my girlfriend Lauren, and my friends, JJ and Brittany."

"Sam's the name. Pleasure is all mine. Now, come in come in." Sam said, leading the group into the rather small abode. "Now, now, I've got some tea, hot chocolate, water, take your pick."

Niko chose tea while the others chose the hot chocolate, and within minutes Sam whipped up four cups to present to his guests with the help of a small white and green pokémon.

"Thanks, Snove." Sam said, taking the cups from a tray and handing them to each visitor in turn. "Oh, right. This is Snove. He's a snover I found injured in the fields one day. Nursed him back to health and he's stuck with me ever since. Neat, eh?"

"Hi Snove!" Lauren said, holding her hand out. "OW!" She said, touching the green spikes on snover's hand. While Niko was helping Sam to nurse Lauren's hand, Brittany pulled out her pokédex to view the unfamiliar pokémon:

" _Snover, the frost tree pokémon. Grass and ice type. Seemingly curious about people, they gather around footsteps they find on snowy mountains_."

"Yup, snover are curious little creatures. I occasionally see them stopping by outside my cabin, where I'll give them some food and they'll quickly be off." Sam then sat down on the couch opposite the group. "So, tell me kids. What're you all doing in these parts?"

JJ explained their journey and eventual destination, with Niko butting in occasionally to comment, which ticked off the breeder-in-training. Sam sat back and listened, stroking his beard occasionally.

"Well, looks like you've all got your work cut out for ya. Tell ya what, there's actually a storm coming in tonight, so why don't you all stay here, and I'll see ya off in the morning with some extra supplies. Sound good?"

"Wow, really?" Brittany asked in surprise. Sam nodded, his beard wiggling slightly. "Thank you so much, Sam!"

"It's my pleasure. From the sound of it, you four seem like something special. I'm happy to help out."

"Well, we really appreciate it." Brittany replied before sending out some of her pokémon—tangrowth excluded, due to his size. Sam seemed to have no issue with it, as it gave snover a chance to interact with the group of them.

After the lot of pokémon played around for some time, the group sat down for dinner with Sam while their teams rested. At dinner, unfortunately, Niko and JJ ended up fighting again.

"Thanks again for the supplies, Sam." JJ said before starting on his soup. "We were going to run low actually."

"Yeah, if a certain someone didn't plan the trip poorly, that is." Niko said before diving into his own soup.

"Niko…" Brittany said, clasping a hand on his shoulder. "Let's not argue right now."

"It's my pleasure, kids. Like I said, I'm happy to help in any way that I can. These are treacherous roads you're walking on. The least I can do is give a little." Sam said with a warm smile, stroking his beard.

"Niko," JJ said, placing his spoon down, "why is it necessary to take shots at me, especially when you lean on me for everything!? It's always me that has to get out the map and figure out where we're going. It's always me that has to get supplies with Brittany, again while you're messing around doing nothing. And it's always me that has to help heal our pokémon when they're sick. I can't understand WHY you're complaining when I'm doing everything already!?"

The table was silent for a moment, in shock at JJ's rare outburst.

"Fine. You want me to do more? If I didn't want to go on these gym challenges, you'd just be stuck back home working in a convenience store! It's because of US that you want to do better for yourself!" Niko snapped back. "Also, what the hell are you doing for your goal? You want to be a breeder, but what does that entail exactly? Just carrying around eggs and baking? Pretty damn sure it doesn't."

"Says the person who wants to be some 'Pokémon Master' but can't get past the quarterfinals in a Pokémon League!" JJ shouted back.

"Really? You quit after losing ONE gym battle. And you stopped participating in contests because Brittany was better than you."

"You almost quit because _Fay_ beat you. You lost your mind over ONE loss too!" JJ shouted. Both of them stood up out of their chairs, staring the other down. Suddenly, they both heard the front door slam.

Niko looked around, only to see Sam sitting there, the latter dumbfounded. "Where are the girls?"

"While you two was arguing, the blue-haired one ran off crying, and the brunette one followed after her. We need to find them, though. The snowstorms coming quickly!"

Niko then ran for his coat instinctively, as did JJ and Sam. Before long, they packed up their pokéballs and flashlights and went off in search of the girls.

* * *

"I can't take it!" Lauren shouted, throwing her fists downwards. "I hate it when they argue! I'm done with it!" She shouted to herself. The sun was quickly setting, leaving her alone in the dark. But she kept going, wanting more than anything to be away from her boyfriend and JJ.

After a while, she sat down against a tree until she heard a rustling of twigs underneath a pair of feet. Moments later, Brittany revealed herself, combusken at her side. "Hey girl," Brittany said cheerfully, sitting down in the snow next to Lauren. "You alright?"

"I didn't want to be around those idiots. So I just left." Lauren admitted, a tear in her eye.

"Well, let's get back. It's getting dark and we don't want to get lost, right?"

Lauren didn't respond, instead choosing to sit and watch what was left of the sunset from behind the forest of trees. A short smile on her face, she stood up with Brittany, and the two of them and combusken walked back through the forest and towards the cabin.

As they did, they both heard a rustling in the trees in front of them. Out of nowhere a massive creature with white, shaggy fur and long arms that had spikes on the ends stopped them in their tracks. Moments later, two more showed up behind the first. Brittany and Lauren began to back away, but before they did anything combusken charged forward at them out of fear that the monsters would threaten her trainer.

"Monferno, help out combusken!" Lauren shouted, summoning her playful pokémon. "Use fire swipes!"

Monferno's hands lit on fire as she also charged forward at the monsters. However, moments before one of them slammed their spiky arm into combusken, launching the young fowl pokémon into a tree, collapsing her to the ground like a rag doll. This distracted monferno for a moment before she also found herself hurdling across the forest towards the trees. Then, everything went dark for Lauren and Brittany…

"Brittany…Brittany, wake up…" Lauren's voice said softly. Brittany opened her eyes to find herself sitting propped up against a wall. Her arms and back were sore, and she felt blood running down on of her legs, somehow. Turning to Lauren, she noticed that her friend looked oddly similar. In front of them lay monferno and combusken, both unconscious.

"Where…where are we…?" Brittany asked, looking around. They were in some sort of cavern, presumably inside the mountain range they had walked alongside for the past several days.

"No idea. But those abomasnow probably put us here for some reason." Lauren said. Noticing Brittany's confusion, she elaborated. "I looked up those creatures in the pokédex. They're called abomasnow. They evolve from snover."

Brittany let out a tacit "ah" before trying to stand up and walk towards combusken. She didn't make it far before collapsing back on the ground. Lauren crawled over to see what happened.

"I'm fine…but why are these abomasnow after _us_? We did nothing wrong."

"Maybe we were just in their territory, and they figured us to be dead after they knocked us out that they placed us in here?" Lauren said, looking around again. "If that's the case, then they're pretty stupid pokémon."

"Agreed." Brittany said, laying her back against the back wall of the cavern again. For a while the two were silent. Eventually, it was Brittany who spoke again. "Are you _really_ alright, though?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean…Niko and JJ's fight didn't seem to be the only thing bothering you. Is there something else?"

Lauren looked at the ground with a nervous smile. "You're good, you know that?" When Brittany didn't seem surprised by the compliment, Lauren continued. "No, I'm not okay. I messed up in Celestic Town and that is getting to me. I don't want that to be my last contest. I want another chance to compete for a ribbon and to enter the Grand Festival with you." She took a moment to catch her breath. "I shouldn't have used eevee in a high-stakes battle like that, especially when she has never been in an official battle before…"

Brittany looked at Lauren with empathy. "You made a mistake, now what are you going to do about it?"

Lauren shrugged. "I don't know, exactly. I just hope there's another chance to compete. And I want to keep training eevee so that next time she can do better. I made a promise to her that she would get stronger if she joined me. And I failed her."

"You didn't fail her, Lauren," Brittany said. "You haven't failed anyone. Not me, not Niko, and not eevee. You did your best, you took a risk, and it didn't pan out.

"I've had plenty of moments—in contests and in life—where I wish I could have done things differently. I wish that I dressed up for that first Jubilife Contest. I wish that I had prepared more for some of my contests, and I wish I could always be there for people, but sometimes I'm not. Sometimes I just don't know how to help."

"But you always manage to say the right thing at the right time…" Lauren replied. "How?"

"I guess I've just been in people's shoes on too many occasions. Before travelling with Niko and JJ, I had a lot of doubt in myself. And in school I got teased occasionally, which led me to doubt my abilities. That came back when I started doing Pokémon Contests. It wasn't until I started winning ribbons that I started to feel like I was worth something. And, in turn, my pokémon felt confident, too. Tangela especially. He rarely got a chance to battle, or really compete in anything, before taking on a contest for himself. In that contest, we won. I was so proud of him that day, and he was so proud of himself. It made everything worth it.

"But we had to work for it. And we had to take risks. Niko's taken risks, and so has JJ. They haven't always panned out, but they did what they did because it sounded like the best option for them at the time. Do they regret those risks? Maybe, but what can they do about it now? Nothing, other than continue working harder and getting better at what they do."

Lauren nodded, looking over at monferno, who was starting to wake up. "I want to be strong for monferno. And haunter, and roselia, and lopunny, and eevee. I want them to be the best that they can be. And that's why I'm glad I'm challenging contests and gyms. It gives me a lot of practice and room to improve. And, well, I'm glad I've met all of you."

Brittany smiled back warmly. The injury on her arm hardly seemed to hurt at that point. "I feel the same way. I'm glad you're my friend. And, damn, I'm just glad to finally have another girl to talk to. I've only been travelling with guys. They get old after a while."

"Yeah, no kidding. They savage each other when they fight."

"You have no idea…" Brittany said, noticing that combusken was also stirring. A minute later, both the playful and young fowl pokémon were up, ready to help their trainers get back out. As soon as the two girls stood up, ready to leave, they heard a rumbling sound coming from the cave entrance. "Let's go. Now."

Lauren nodded, and the two got up and limped towards the entrance of the cave, their fire types standing in front of them. As they got to the entrance, the three abomasnow from before stood in their way, clearly angry that the group of four were up.

"Lauren, we have to fight them, I think," Brittany said, looking down at combusken. "Let's do this. Use flamethrower!"

"Monferno, flame wheel!" Lauren shouted. As both pokémon attacked with the fury of their fire, they stopped. Combusken's flamethrower produced no more than an ember, and monferno's flame wheel extinguished quickly. Taking the opportunity presented to them, the abomasnow raised their arms, which began to glow bright green, and slammed them down on the two fire types, knocking them to the ground effortlessly.

"Combusken, get up…" Brittany said, getting down on to her knees and crawling to her pokémon. "You have to get up…"

"Monferno…" Lauren said, approaching her own fire type. "Don't give up, please."

The abomasnow began to use the same attack, and just as their arms began to fall towards the ground, both girls shouted their pokémon's names out loud, and a white light erupted onto the scene, illuminating the otherwise dark mountainside.

Monferno and combusken both stood back up, growing larger than before. Monferno didn't grow much, but her shoulders widened, her tail grew and the flame extinguished. Her arms got much longer, and from the back of her head a flame erupted. White fur covered her torso and ankles, and yellow pads appeared on each shoulder and on the backs of both hands.

On the other hand, combusken grew to a massive size. She now had a red-furred body with accents of beige, yellow, and gray. Behind her head are beige feathers that continue down and her chest and abdomen. She now bore a V-shaped crest on her small, red head. Her legs are long and coated in red and yellow fur that covered her talons.

Lauren and Brittany looked in awe at their pokémon, both having just evolved. They watched as Brittany's new pokémon burst forward to the abomasnow on the right. She then launched into the air, spinning while her right foot lit ablaze. She then slammed the foot into abomasnow head, knocking it down. Meanwhile, Lauren's evolved monferno rushed at the abomasnow on the left and unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks on the frost tree pokémon, also knocking it over. Then, as the third one charged toward both, Lauren's pokémon jumped into a flame wheel that was complimented by Brittany's pokémon's flamethrower, quickly defeating the third abomasnow. Still in shock, they examined the two pokémon in their pokédex:

" _Blaziken, the blaze pokémon. Fire and fighting type. Flames spout from its wrists, enveloping its knuckles. Its punches scorch its foes_. _It's signature move is blaze kick._ "

" _Infernape, the flame pokémon. Fire and fighting type. It uses unique fighting moves with fire on its hands and feet. It will take on any opponent._ "

"So, blaziken…you just used blaze kick?" Brittany asked, looking up at her fully evolved chicken-like pokémon. Blaziken nodded cheerfully, leaning down to hug her trainer. Infernape did the same with Lauren, who then learned that her pokémon used the move called close combat.

"Hey, Brittany," Lauren said, looking at her brunette friend. "Thanks for the advice. I really needed it."

Brittany turned and smiled, chuckling a little. "We all need help every now and then, Lauren. Never be afraid to ask for it."

Suddenly, they saw a flash of lights, and moments later Niko and JJ appeared alongside Sam. Niko ran and hugged Lauren tightly before switching and hugging Brittany.

"Are you two alright?" He asked worriedly.

"We're just fine, Niko," Lauren said, leaning in to hug him again. "Thanks for looking for us, but as you can see, we've gotten it taken care of." She said, pointing to infernape, and then the abomasnow.

"Oh…my…" Niko said as he observed the three abomasnow laying on the ground unconscious.

"We can all reconnect later," Sam said urgently. "But the storm is beginning to pick up. We need to get back to the cabin, now!"

* * *

 **Author's note: I wanted to do an episode dedicated to Lauren and Brittany that would culminate in both of their fire types reaching their final evolutions. I hope I did well in conveying their connection not just to each other, but also to their pokemon. Please let me know your thoughts. I could have written the circumstances for combusken's and monferno's evolutions better, but I liked the whole "abomsnow capturing them" kind of thing. The idea reminded me of the scene on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back, where Luke Skywalker is held captive by the Wampa. Anyways hope you enjoyed!**


	41. Uxie's gift

**Episode 41: Uxie's gift**

Back at the cabin, Sam treated Brittany and Lauren's wounds while Niko and JJ got them some tea. As they were about to walk over to the girls, Niko stopped them.

"Listen, JJ. I'm sorry for getting mad at you. I overreacted and shouldn't have. You're right—I need to pull my own weight more. I'll try to do that in the future."

JJ simply laughed, shaking his head in response. "Don't worry about it, Niko. Guess it was just the weather that got to you. We all have our moments, you and I both know that."

Niko nodded, walking over to the girls and handing them tea. "How're you two feeling?" He asked, sitting down next to Lauren. "What happened?"

Brittany took a deep breath and began telling the story of her finding Lauren, the first encounter with the abomasnow, waking up in the cave injured, the second encounter with the pokémon, and the dual evolutions. After they finished telling the story, Sam piped in. "Those abomasnow are notorious for getting into trouble around these parts. I myself have had to deal with them on a few occasions, ya see, but once I made it clear to them that I was stronger, they stopped bothering me and kept to their forest. Now we just coexist without bothering one another."

"How'd you beat them?" Niko asked. Sam simply pulled out a pokéball of his own.

"I'm a trainer, too." He said with a wink. "Anyways, you girls feeling fine, yes?" Lauren and Brittany both nodded. "Excellent. Well, you should all get some sleep. You've got a long road ahead of you."

* * *

The following morning, the group woke up at roughly the same time. Niko and JJ helped Brittany and Lauren—both wearing slings on their arms—get packed up while Sam organized the supplies for them. After a quick breakfast, the group was ready to continue towards Snowpoint City.

"Remember to be careful, kids. These are treacherous parts. Getting to Snowpoint City isn't the easiest of tasks, especially at this time of year, but you've got enough moxie to keep going. Also, choose where you stop during the nights. Snowstorms are a regular thing during the winter. Otherwise, best of luck!" Sam said cheerfully, clasping Niko's and JJ's hands before giving a brief side-hug to Brittany and Lauren. Snove attempted to hug, but the four trainers back away before patting him on the head as a farewell.

"So JJ, where now?" Niko asked, looking over his friend's shoulder as they trudged off through the thin layer of snow coating the ground.

"North. Snowpoint City is several days north of here. We'll also get to see Lake Acuity, I think." JJ said as he pointed to a massive lake in the northernmost point of the region. "So that'll be the third lake we've seen."

"Aren't there supposed to be guardians hidden in each?" Brittany asked, referencing their brief lecture from Professor Rowan all of those months ago. JJ nodded, but didn't say much more.

The next several days were largely uneventful. Occasionally, the group would stop and train briefly during lunch and before dinner, or whenever there wasn't a snowstorm blowing their way. They quickly realized how correct Sam was—snowstorms were unusually frequent along route 217. One day, they nearly got caught in one before finding shelter behind a hill.

They also noticed the snow was getting deeper and more difficult to traverse while getting much colder during the nights and early mornings. JJ eventually put togepi into her pokéball as a way of keeping her warm, since the egg-like pokémon hardly came out of her eggshell during their trek through the snow.

The rest of the pokémon also had difficulty dealing with the cold, even when infernape and blaziken kept their campsites as warm as possible. The only one that didn't seem to have much of an issue with it was cranidos, who continued to eye the two fire types with admiration.

After several days of walking, they finally made it to Lake Acuity, where they planned to stop for a day or so and rest before the final push towards Snowpoint City, which was a day's trek away.

Niko sat down his bag on the thin layer of snow and walked over to the lake's edge to stretch and look out onto the water. The lake was beautiful, even under a cloudy, gray sky, the water was glassy and smooth-looking, as if looking into a mirror. He sent out his five pokémon to give them time to stretch and practice training a little. Lauren did the same, and the two spent the following couple of hours working on moves.

Lauren wanted to work specifically with eevee, who hasn't had the motivation to train since their loss in Celestic Town. After giving her other four pokémon things to work on, she sat down next to eevee at the lake's edge.

"Look, eevee, I'm sorry." Lauren began, peering over at the foxlike evolution pokémon. "I knew you weren't ready for a battle just yet, but I threw you in there anyways. It was reckless, and I regret it. I should have worked with you before the contest more, to get you ready for whatever you had to face. Do you forgive me?"

Eevee continued to stare at the water intently, as if focused on something. Lauren then tried looking in eevee's direction as well, clearly not seeing the same thing.

"You alright?" Lauren asked. Eevee then shook her head, as if trying to repress a thought. The evolution pokémon then looked back up at her trainer, and nodded. "Good. Do you want to train, then?" Eevee nodded again. Both stood up and turned to face JJ and umbreon. "What's up?"

"We're going to help you and eevee train. What better way than to have eevee train against a former eevee?" JJ said with a half-smile. The two then got to work, with umbreon first racing with eevee to test her speed. Then, they worked on eevee's bite move, and lastly umbreon showed eevee some of his own moves, such as faint attack and shadow ball.

Of the three tasks the evolution pokémon worked on, the most promise she showed was in using her bite move, where she proved to be more adept than her evolved form at. Overall, Lauren was impressed with her eevee's determination to get better. It made her wonder if using eevee in Celestic Town was a good idea after all.

That evening the group sat down for dinner. The lakefront provided them, oddly enough, with warmer temperatures than everywhere else, which confirmed their choice to settle down near Lake Acuity. While they were eating and talking about their day, Lauren noticed eevee continuing to train, particularly working on her speed. To the coordinator, this made sense: eevee's loss in Celestic Town was in part due to her being slower than the jolteon that she faced. Lauren watched eevee for some time, ignoring virtually every other voice around her, even Niko's.

"Eevee really took that loss personally, didn't she?" JJ said, interrupting the conversation to join Lauren in watching the little pokémon train.

"Yeah…she really did." Lauren replied, looking off at her little fox. "I hope we can win next time…if there is a next time, that is."

"There will be. There has to be." Brittany added. "I got my last ribbon a week before the Grand Festival, and the contest was pretty close to the site of the festival, so it all worked out for me." Niko and JJ agreed, pointing out what a great job Brittany did in the Pacifidlog contest.

After dinner Lauren joined eevee by the lake. By this time the evolution pokémon had spent a considerable amount of time practicing, not bothering to take any breaks. By now she seemed to be getting a little faster, and her bite was stronger than ever.

"You've done well, eevee. Mind if I keep you company?" Lauren said, sitting down at the lakefront. Eevee nodded and continued on.

An hour or so passed by before Lauren noticed a bright light shining from the center of the lake. Turning to eevee, she noticed the foxlike pokémon saw it too. Out of the lake appeared a glowing, bright blue orb that hovered along the water until it made it to eevee and Lauren. Once it got close enough, the orb—which was maybe an inch or two in diameter—went _inside_ eevee's head, causing eevee to glow brightly for a moment before returning to her normal state.

"Eevee…what happened?" Lauren asked, crawling over to pet her pokémon. Eevee quickly looked up at Lauren, and then scampered off, away from the lake. "Oh, geez. Eevee wait up!"

As they ran around the camp and back into the forest, umbreon opened his eye and looked up to see the two running off somewhere. After hesitating, umbreon got up and ran off as well.

It was several minutes of constant running before Lauren and eevee made it to their destination—a cave entrance. Panting, Lauren watched as eevee continued into the cave without hesitation, to which Lauren quickly followed and umbreon behind both of them. The inside of the cave was covered in glossy ice, with small icicles hanging from the ceiling and jutting out of the sides of the wall. They ran deeper into the cave for maybe a minute more until reaching a circular room with a massive rock coated in ice sitting in the center. The rock was comprised of several crystalline structures all sticking out of the rock.

"What is this place…?" Lauren said, looking first at the rock and then around the room. "Also…umbreon, what're you doing here?"

Umbreon shrugged as he slowly paced around the room, eying the rock and eevee, the latter of whom was closely studying the rock with a mixture of awe and confusion.

"Eevee…why are we here. Why—" Lauren paused as eevee touched the rock. "Eevee, what are you doing?"

Suddenly, eevee began to glow a bright white color, and grow to roughly the size of umbreon. Her fur was now light blue with long, pointed ears, dark eyes, and a small nose. She has two rhombus-shaped marking on her back and the tip of her tail. The crest on her forehead and the dangles hanging from her ears give off a resemblance to a trapper's hat. Lauren looked at the newly evolved pokémon with awe.

" _Glaceon, the fresh snow pokémon. Ice type. By controlling its body hear, it can freeze the atmosphere around it to make a diamond-dust flurry_."

"Eevee…" Lauren said, "No, glaceon. Come here." She said, kneeling down and holding her arms out wide. Glaceon turned to Lauren and ran towards her, leaping into her arms. "Now we can definitely win. You and me." She looked over at umbreon, who sat in his hind legs observing the two, looking unsure of his purpose there. "C'mon, let's get outta here." Lauren stood back up and walked with glaceon and umbreon out of the cave and towards Lake Acuity.

As they were walking back through the forest, they heard a rustling up in the trees, and a cluster of golbats shot out from the branches towards the trio. As soon as they did, umbreon leapt forward, launching out a shadow ball at two of them. Glaceon hesitated for a moment, as if unsure of what to do, until one of the golbats dove towards Lauren.

"Glaceon! Do something!" Lauren cried out. Suddenly she felt a gust of cold wind blow past her, colliding with the golbats and forcing them away. "Huh? Icy wind?" She asked, looking down at glaceon, who nodded. Umbreon concurred. "Great job, buddy."

When they approached the camp, they noticed the trainers were all up, as were a couple of the pokémon. Niko and JJ scrambled onto their feet and ran towards Lauren and umbreon, respectively.

"Where'd you guys go off to?" Niko asked, embracing Lauren.

"Not really sure, but eevee evolved because of it," She said, pointing down to glaceon.

"That might explain why umbreon went with you, too." JJ added. "Might have something to do with them both being of a similar species."

"Could be. Anyways, I'm tired. We all need to get some sleep." Lauren said, walking over with Niko and glaceon to their sleeping bags. Within minutes, Niko, JJ, Brittany, umbreon, and glaceon were all asleep.

However, as Lauren was closing her eyes to fall asleep, she noticed something coming out of the water. A small, floating pink creature with a yellow crest on its head. It floated there for a moment before returning into the water. Then, Lauren collapsed onto her pillow into dreamland.


	42. City of snow

**Episode 42: City of snow**

Snowpoint City was hardly a departure from the previous week of travelling. As soon as the group reached the city, they looked for the Pokémon Center to warm up and heal their pokémon. While they did this, Niko and Lauren talked briefly about their gym battle the following day. Provided that the gym leader is available, they would challenge them. Since Lauren went first in the previous match against Byron, Niko would commence the challenge this time, with Lauren going second.

"Definitely going to warm them up for you. Hah! Get it?" Niko asked, laughing. He then received a light smack to the head from his girlfriend, who clearly didn't think of the pun as _that_ funny.

"Whatever you say, Niko." Lauren said with a wink.

The following morning both trainers were out on the practice battlefield, which was evidently covered in snow, going through some last-minute training with their respective teams. As Niko was watching them, he noticed how far a lot of them have come on their journey. It was hard to believe that the turtwig and shinx that used to fight all the time were now a grotle and luxray that seemed to get along now. They even helped one another whenever possible. Prinplup was a far more powerful pokémon than before, and seemingly more confident, too. Staraptor enjoyed training once again after evolving, and cranidos was getting more used to the team dynamic with every passing day.

Meanwhile, Lauren was trying to help haunter learn a move called dark pulse, figuring it might be useful later down the line. Like water pulse, it requires the user to focus elemental energy on a single spot. In the case of dark pulse, it's on the target, not the object (like an orb with water pulse). Haunter initially had no problems with using the attack, but it was showing difficulty with focusing it, and would accidentally hit some of his teammates or Niko's pokémon.

After training for an hour, the two went back inside to heal and have a quick meal before heading over to the gym, which was in the center of town. However, as the group approached the gym, they noticed it was closed. According to a sign on the door, the gym leader—Candice—was at the Trainer's School.

"Where's that…?" Niko asked, looking primarily at JJ, who shrugged in response.

"It's down the street, actually." A feminine voice shouted in their direction. The four of them turned to see a short, black-haired woman in a teal sweatshirt and green skirt and long, teal and white-striped socks approach them. "I was just on my way back from there. Hi, I'm Candice." She said, reaching out her hand to shake each of their hands. "What can I do for you?"

Before Niko responded, he couldn't help but realize how pretty Candice looked. Trying to shake the thought out of his head, he was slow to reply, leaving it up to Lauren to fill in for him. "I'm Lauren, and this is Niko. We're here to challenge you for your gym badge."

Candice's eyes widened a little, as if surprised. "Oh, of course you may. Individually?" Lauren nodded. "Got it! Let's get you all inside and we'll be able to begin in a short minute, mmk?"

"She's really pretty." Brittany mentioned once she, JJ, and Lauren all got seated in the stands. "And very nice."

"Agreed." JJ said, watching her walk off into some back room, presumably in search of a referee who worked for the gym.

"On what comment?" Brittany asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh…both?" JJ replied with a half-smile. "What? She is pretty!" The brunette shook her head, pretending to be disappointed.

Meanwhile, Niko stood on one end of the field waiting for Candice. He used that time to study the battlefield, which was covered in ice. It reminded him a little of his gym battle against Pryce back in Johto. He then realized that now, just like back then, he didn't have a fire type to use against an ice type gym leader, while his friend (or, in this case, girlfriend) did.

Candice then reappeared back on the field with a referee for the match. "Alright, Niko right? How does a four-on-four match sound?" When Niko nodded in confirmation, the referee explained the rules of the match to them both and, once he finished, both trainers summoned their pokémon. "Sneasel, kiai!" She commanded, striking a battle pose as she threw out her first pokéball.

"Sneasel, eh?" Niko though. "Alright then. Cranidos, I choose you!" Niko shouted, summoning the overexcited dinosaur pokémon. "Let's start off with ancientpower!"

"Sneasel, use ice shard!" Candice commanded. The sharp claw pokémon summoned shards of ice in varying sizes and launched them across the icy battlefield. The shards collided with the ancientpower, which cranidos managed to control almost too well. "Hmm…alright, then. Sneasel, faint attack!"

"Cranidos, brace yourself, alright? This attack will hit you." Niko cautioned, waiting for sneasel to reappear. "Now! Use headbutt!"

As soon as sneasel struck at cranidos from his left side, the rock type lurched his massive head to the left, striking sneasel in the side with a powerful headbutt. Niko then called for him to use ancientpower once again. This time, sneasel couldn't block the attack, and was sent hurdling to the side of the icy battlefield, slowly struggling to get back up.

"Cranidos, let's do this! Use headbutt!" Niko shouted. The dinosaur tried charging forward, but accidentally slipped on the ice and fell on his face. This gave sneasel the chance to strike, first by using ice shard and then following up with faint attack. Sneasel then skated around the field, waiting for cranidos to get back up. "Can you, buddy?" Niko muttered, waiting to see what cranidos would do.

Eventually, the dinosaur got back up, ready for another round against his first opponent. Smiling, Niko commanded cranidos to use ancientpower once more. In retaliation, sneasel shot another round of ice shards and followed up with aerial ace by skating straight down the middle of the battlefield and leaping through the air towards its opponent. Cranidos then met sneasel's claw with his head, successfully landing a headbutt onto the sharp claw pokémon and launching it midway across the field.

"Cranidos, finish sneasel off with ancientpower!" Niko shouted, thrusting his fist forward. The dinosaur conjured another series of rocks and threw them at sneasel, who was still laying on its back. The attack landed successfully, defeating the dark and ice type.

"Sneasel is unable to battle, cranidos wins! Leader Candice will now send out her second pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Great job, cranidos!" Niko shouted cheerfully. Cranidos turned around and cheered as well, lifting his tiny arms into the air victoriously. "You up for another round, then?" Cranidos nodded with a look of determination.

"Abomasnow, kiai!" Candice shouted, summoning the massive snow beast from its pokéball.

"Alright, cranidos. Let's see if we can pull this one off, now. Use ancientpower!" Niko shouted, thrusting his fist forward again.

"Abomasnow, counter with avalanche!" Candice called out. Like with ice shard, the ice move collided with the ancient rocks, creating a stalemate that Niko and cranidos attempted to end.

"Headbutt!" Niko shouted. Cranidos nodded, trying once more to run across the icy surface, and once again slipping and falling on his face.

"Water pulse, now!" Candice commanded. Abomasnow conjured a glowing orb of water and hurled it over the field, hitting cranidos on the top of the head, splashing water everywhere. "Now, focus blast!"

Abomasnow then created a pulsating sphere of energy, similar to grotle's energy ball, and launched it at its opponent, just as he was getting back up. The focus blast hit cranidos directly in the face, knocking him backwards on his tail.

"Cranidos is unable to battle, abomasnow wins! Challenger Niko will send out his second pokémon!" The judge declared.

"Cranidos, return. You did great, buddy. I'm really proud of you. Staraptor, you're up!" Niko shouted. "Use aerial ace!"

Staraptor rose into the air before diving down at his opponent, gusts of air emanating from his beak. He successfully landed the attack, but felt the spiky green arm slam his side, launching him through the air and into the stands.

"Abomasnow, focus blast!" Candice commanded. The ice type slowly turned to his left and conjured a sphere of energy, launching it at the subdued staraptor. Seeing the focus blast hurdling towards him, staraptor dove to the side, effectively dodging the move. It then charged again at abomasnow, this time using double team to confuse the frost snow pokémon.

"Aerial ace!" Niko shouted. Staraptor crashed into abomasnow, knocking it backwards a little. "Now, double team into quick attack!"

"Avalanche!" Candice declared. Abomasnow summoned a torrent of snow that crashed down in front of it, disrupting the double team and nearly trapping staraptor, who luckily made it through with quick attack and crashed into the ice type once more. "Wood hammer!"

"Staraptor, aerial ace!" Niko shouted, thrusting his fist forward. Staraptor did so, rising back into the air and diving once more, barely missing the wood hammer. "Great job!" Niko said as abomasnow fell onto its back.

"Abomasnow is unable to battle, staraptor wins! Leader Candice will now use her third pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Piloswine, kiai!" Candice cried out, summoning a familiar-looking swine-like pokémon. "Use stone edge!"

"Staraptor, double team!" Niko shouted, not entirely sure what stone edge did, but refused to take any chances. Piloswine cried out and pointed rocks jutted out of the icy surface in differing lengths, each one successfully hitting not just the copies of staraptor, but the predator pokémon himself. "Aerial ace!"

"Piloswine, stone edge again!" Candice shouted. Piloswine once more summoned pointed rocks out of the ground, nearly all of them missing as staraptor rushed across the field towards his opponent. "Avalanche!"

Just as staraptor came into contact with piloswine, the latter created a wall of snow that crashed down upon the flying type, burying it. Moments later, staraptor crawled out from under the pile of snow, defeated.

"Staraptor is unable to battle, piloswine wins! Challenger Niko will send out his third pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Grotle, you're up!" Niko shouted. _I know this isn't conventional, but piloswine can be beaten by grass types, I think_. "Use razor leaf!"

"Hail!" Candice called out. Piloswine cried out once more, and the battlefield was suddenly raining hail from the ceiling. Grotle began to shiver from the cold weather, but persevered nonetheless, summoning a torrent of sharp leaves at his opponent, who had difficulty evading them. "Now, stone edge!"

"Grotle, break the stone edge with energy ball!" Niko shouted. Grotle's two bushes began to glow brightly, and he formed a ball of pure energy just as the stone edge reached him. Launching it, grotle broke through each of the rocks and successfully hit piloswine. "Now, razor leaf once more!"

"Piloswine, earthquake!" Candice commanded, thrusting her fist into the air. "Kiai!"

"Grotle, maintain your balance. You can do it." Niko said in reassurance. Grotle nodded, trying to hold himself together as the icy battlefield vigorously shook. Once the earthquake subsided, grotle launched another round of razor leaves, which subdued piloswine enough for the grove pokémon to launch a final energy ball, defeating the swine pokémon.

"Piloswine is unable to battle, grotle wins! Leader Candice will send out her final pokémon!"

"Froslass, KIAI!" Candice cried out, throwing a pokéball high into the air. Out of it came a small spirit-like pokémon in humanoid form. Her torso resembles a kimono, and her arms are connected to her head and flare at the wrists. The flares bare an icy blue coloration. Lastly, her head is shaped like a sideways water droplet and topped with two ice crystals that resemble horns. Her mask has four holes, two of them for her eyes and one for the mouth.

" _Froslass, the snow land pokémon. Ice and ghost type. It freezes prey by blowing its -58 degree Fahrenheit breath. It is said to then secretly display its prey._ "

"Grotle, we can do this. Energy ball!" Niko commanded.

"Shadow ball!" Candice shouted. Both pokémon conjured spheres of energy and shadows and launched them at one another, creating a stalemate. However, froslass was quicker to follow up. "Blizzard!"

"Don't give up, grotle! Use razor leaf!" Niko shouted, yelling through both the hail and the incoming blizzard, which froze grotle and defeated it moments later.

"Grotle is unable to battle, froslass wins! Challenger Niko will send out his final pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Alright, then. Luxray, I choose you!" Niko shouted. "Use charge!"

"Shadow ball!"

"Switch to crunch, break the shadow ball!" Niko shouted. Luxray waited for the shadow ball to approach before leaping forward and intercepting it, quickly breaking the shadow ball before landing back on his feet, albeit slipping a little. "Now, discharge!"

"Psychic!" Candice called out. Froslass' eyes began to glow a light purple, and before luxray could release his pent-up electricity, it found itself hurdling towards the stands nearby. "Now, blizzard!"

"Luxray, fight through the blizzard! Use discharge!" Niko shouted. Luxray jumped out of the stands and, before the powerful gust of icy wind collided with him, the electric type released a massive surge of electricity in froslass' direction, successfully focusing the discharge. "Now, use crunch!"

Taking advantage of froslass' temporary paralysis, luxray charged across the icy battlefield, nearly slipping on more than one occasion, which disrupted his momentum immensely. Nevertheless, the gleam eyes pokémon jumped forward and bit down on his opponent's arm before using discharge once more and launching froslass across the field, nearly colliding with the back wall.

"Froslass, shadow ball! KIAI!" Candice commanded. Luxray ducked and slid around the shadow ball before stumbling back up and charging towards froslass, fangs bared.

"Crunch!" Niko shouted. Luxray bit down on froslass once more, this time sending a surge of electricity through the snow land pokémon's body. Froslass yelped out in pain before falling to the icy surface, defeated.

"Froslass is unable to battle, luxray wins! The victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!" The referee declared.

Luxray turned and slid towards Niko, who was kneeling down with open arms. "I'm so proud of you, luxray. We showed no mercy. And you earned us our seventh badge!" Luxray lightly bit down on Niko's shoulder in excitement, eliciting a short yelp from his trainer. As he returned luxray and stood back up, he felt Lauren's hand tap his shoulder. "Good luck." He said before turning to the stands.

Lauren stood there waiting until Candice returned from healing her pokémon. Now knowing what the ice type gym leader had in her arsenal, Lauren felt a little more comfortable in her ability to win this badge. Once Candice returned, the referee explained the rules once more, and the battle was on. Candice started with sneasel once more, and Lauren chose lopunny.

"Sneasel, ice shard!"

"Jump kick, lopunny!" Lauren commanded. The rabbit pokémon leapt forward, flying through the air in anticipation of landing a kick on sneasel. However, the ice shards made a direct hit, causing lopunny to fall to the ground, crashing onto the icy surface. "Agility and quick attack!" Lauren commanded, pulling a strand of blue hair behind her ear. Lopunny obliged, rushing towards sneasel quickly, slamming into the sharp claws pokémon effortlessly. "Now, jump kick!"

"Aerial ace!" Candice commanded. Once lopunny's kick slammed into sneasel's face, the latter struck at the former with its claw, slashing across the rabbit's leg and forcing it to the ground. "Slash!" Sneasel slashed once more before receiving another kick to the face.

"Lopunny, thunderpunch!" Lauren called out. Lopunny quickly got back onto her feet, rushing towards sneasel and exchanging a series of thunderpunches and slashes with her opponent. After a minute or so of doing this, lopunny threw a side kick across sneasel's head, knocking the dark and ice type to the ground for good.

"Sneasel is unable to battle, lopunny wins! Leader Candice will send out her second pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Abomasnow, kiai!" Candice shouted, summoning a familiar ice type pokémon. "Focus blast!"

"Lopunny, dodge it!" Lauren commanded. The rabbit pokémon waited for the blast to launch towards her before dodging, using quick attack as a means of landing a jump kick on abomasnow's face.

"Wood hammer!" Candice cried out. Abomasnow's spiky arm turned bright green as it slapped lopunny with it, launching the rabbit into the icy battlefield, nearly shattering the ice below. "Avalanche!"

Just like with staraptor in the previous battle, abomasnow summoned a wall of snow that quickly buried lopunny. Also like staraptor, lopunny crawled out of the massive pile before fainting.

"Lopunny is unable to battle, abomasnow wins! Challenger Lauren will send out her second pokémon!"

"Infernape, I choose you!" Lauren cried out. "Use mach punch!"

"Abomasnow, water pulse!" Candice shouted. The beast-like ice pokémon conjured an orb of water to throw at infernape, but the flame pokémon dodged it, upper cutting her opponent and knocking it backwards.

"Use close combat!" Lauren shouted. Infernape jumped onto abomasnow, thrashing at the ice type with punches and kicks, just as she did when she first evolved. "Finish it off with flame wheel!"

Infernape jumped back to allow abomasnow time to get back up before jumping into a wheel of fire and slamming into abomasnow, dragging the massive ice type backwards into the wall behind Candice. Infernape jumped backwards as abomasnow fell forwards, defeated.

"Abomasnow is unable to battle, infernape wins! Leader Candice will send out her third pokémon!"

"You're good, Lauren. Really good. Piloswine, kiai!" Candice said, summoning her swine pokémon. "Earthquake!"

"Infernape, jump around, and use mach punch!" Lauren shouted, hoping that by staying in the air most of the time, the flame pokémon could minimize the damage she took from earthquake. This seemed to work for the most part, and infernape landed a mach punch to piloswine's side. However, Candice commanded piloswine to use stone edge up close, launching infernape into the air after nearly being stabbed in the chest by the pointed rock. As infernape fell back towards the ground, Lauren commanded it to use flame wheel. Infernape obliged, diving into piloswine while in a wheel of fire. Infernape continued to dig into piloswine until the swine pokémon used avalanche on itself, burying infernape in the massive pile of snow.

"Now, earthquake!" Candice called out. While infernape was melting the snow around her, piloswine viciously shook the ground, trapping infernape in the attack.

"Infernape, flame wheel into close combat!"

"Stone edge!" Candice shouted. As piloswine shot pointed rocks out of the ground, infernape serpentined through them, slowing down a bit but still managing to slam into piloswine's right side. While she did this, the battlefield under her began to melt away, leaving a trail of slush behind. The flame pokémon leapt out of her fiery wheel and began assaulting piloswine with a long series of punches and kicks, hitting her opponent from all sides. With a final mach punch, piloswine was defeated.

"Piloswine is unable to battle, infernape wins! Leader Candice will now send out her final pokémon!" The referee declared.

Candice's eyes widened as she returned piloswine. "Well then. I didn't expect this much of a challenge. But your infernape is good, Lauren. You've done well with it. Froslass, KIAI!"

Lauren could hear infernape's panting, indicating that the fire type was more exhausted than she realized. Nevertheless, they continued on. "Flame wheel!"

"Froslass, psychic!" Candice shouted. Froslass' eyes began to glow a bright purple color as she took control of infernape, still inside the flame wheel. She then drove infernape back into the icy ground, melting the surface into water. "Now, double team and blizzard!"

Froslass duplicated itself several times, all surrounding infernape. They then all blasted out a flurry of icy wind towards their opponent. Infernape attempted to protect herself with flame wheel, but the attack was largely ineffective against the multiple blizzards. The flame pokémon finally collapsed, unable to continue.

"Infernape is unable to battle, froslass is the winner! Challenger Lauren will now send out her third pokémon!"

"Glaceon, let's go!" Lauren shouted. "Use quick attack and bite!"

Glaceon rushed forward at a blinding pace towards froslass, who simply stood still. As glaceon was about to leap forward, the snow land pokémon conjured a shadow ball and launched it at glaceon, who crumbled onto the floor.

"Froslass, psychic!" Candice shouted. The snow land pokémon's eyes began to glow once more as she picked up glaceon and tossed her around the battlefield effortlessly, eventually slamming glaceon onto the ground in front of her. "Use shadow ball!"

"Bite down on the shadow ball!" Lauren said, eying Niko in her peripherals, as it was he who gave her that idea. Glaceon obliged, destroying the shadow ball with her teeth. "Now, icy wind and bite!"

"Shadow ball!" Candice cried out. Glaceon bit down once more on the shadow ball before repeating the move on froslass. Just as she bit down, she felt a shadow ball hit her stomach, unlatching her teeth from froslass' arms and launching her back into the ground. Glaceon struggled to get back up as a final shadow ball knocked her out.

"Glaceon is unable to battle, froslass wins! Lauren will send out her final pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Haunter, I choose you!" Lauren shouted, summoning her own ghost type. "Shadow punch!"

"Shadow ball!" Candice commanded. The spectral fist quickly met the inky black shadow ball, once more resulting in a stalemate. Haunter and froslass continued this a few more times while hovering above the icy battlefield. Lauren then decided to take a risk—in that moment, just when she could potentially lose the match.

"Haunter, dark pulse!" Lauren commanded. Haunter nodded, raising his right hand towards froslass.

"Froslass, psychic!" Candice shouted, and the snow land pokémon took control of her opponent quickly.

"Fight through it, haunter. You can do it…" Lauren said desperately. "I believe you can. You're the strongest pokémon I know. And after all we've been through, I _know_ we can win this. SO USE DARK PULSE!"

Haunter struggled to fight through froslass' control over him, eventually being able to take control of his own hand and launch a dark nexus of energy directly at froslass, disrupting the psychic attack. Lauren thrust her fist in the air victoriously.

"Now, use shadow punch!" Haunter launched a spectral punch at his opponent. "And again! And again!"

Haunter continued to barrage froslass with punches before hovering closer and launching a final dark pulse directly at froslass' face, forcing the snow land pokémon into the ground. Froslass threw one final shadow ball at haunter—a direct hit—before collapsing in defeat.

"Froslass is unable to battle, haunter wins. The victory goes to Lauren from Canalave City!" The referee declared.

Lauren opened her arms as haunter tried to rush over and embrace her, instead giving her a cold sensation throughout her body.

"You did it! You fought through the psychic! I'm so proud of you." Lauren said joyfully. She suddenly felt Niko hug her from behind, kissing the top of her head.

"Great job, girl. You crushed it."

"So did you!" Lauren said, happily looking up at Niko, pushing aside some of her blue hair. By now Candice was beside the two, reaching into her sweater pocket and withdrawing two light blue and silver badges that were in the shape of two icy mountains.

"Congrats to the both of you on your victory. Here is the Icicle Badge—proof that you defeated me." Candice said, handing each victor their seventh badge. Candice then eyed Brittany and Lauren for a moment. "Wait…I've seen you both somewhere."

"You have?" Both girls said in unison.

"Yeah! You compete in contests!" When Brittany and Lauren continued their quizzical looks, Candice elaborated. "I'm a huge fan of contests, and so I watch them all the time, usually recording them for my classes so my students can observe performance and battling techniques. I've actually used some clips of both of you, eheh." Candice continued through Brittany and Lauren's intense blushes. "Anyways, are you two participating in the Snowpoint City contest tomorrow? I'll be a judge!"

Lauren looked at Candice, awestruck. "I—I didn't know there'd be a contest! I still need a third ribbon!"

Candice raised an eyebrow with a smile across her face. "Well, then. You just might need to compete, then. Like all contests, it's same-day registration. So just show up at the Contest Hall tomorrow and you'll be just fine!" She said, shaking Lauren's hand. "I wish you the best of luck tomorrow. But don't expect much from me—I have to be impartial to everyone!"

Lauren returned the handshake with an ambitious smile. "Don't worry, I won't."


	43. Vindication

**Episode 43: Vindication**

The rest of the day following her victory in the Snowpoint City Gym was spent preparing for her next Pokémon Contest in the same city. After the revelation that she might have another chance at winning her third ribbon, Lauren ran back to the Pokémon Center to heal up her team in advance of their last-minute training session.

Meanwhile, Niko and JJ watched from inside the Pokémon Center while Brittany assisted her friend in any way possible.

"Think maybe you should be out there?" JJ asked, pointing to Lauren.

"Yeah, you're right. You gonna be fine here all by yourself?"

"Psh, really? Dude, you really have no idea how I spend my summers." JJ quipped, pulling out his book on poffins to read while togepi sat on the table and watched from the window. Niko got up and walked outside to help Lauren with Brittany.

Later that evening, when everyone was asleep, Niko sat there staring at the ceiling. As he was about to close his eyes, he realized Lauren was not yet asleep either. They sat there in silence.

"Nervous?" Niko eventually asked.

"Nope. I think I can do this. This time, I won't make any mistakes. My pokémon are more than ready." Lauren said optimistically.

Niko chuckled a little under his breath. "That's great to hear, girl. I believe you can win, too." Lauren cuddled up closer to him, whispering her thanks into his ear before falling asleep.

* * *

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Snowpoint City Pokémon Contest! I'm your host, Marian, and today we've got quite the show for you today! We have coordinators from all over Sinnoh and beyond competing with style and grace befitting a coordinator. We also have a special guest as our judge today: Snowpoint City's very own gym leader—Candice! For those unfamiliar, let me go through the different stages of a contest:

"The first round is the Performance Round. Each coordinator dresses up and enters a pokémon to perform. Occasionally, contests will require coordinators to use two pokémon in a performance. This one does not. Coordinators may use as many moves as they would like within the three-minute time limit. In the second round—the Battle Round—coordinators will face off against one another using the same pokémon from before, or a different one if they so choose to. Occasionally, like with the Performance Round, coordinators may be required to use two pokémon in a Battle Round, but this one will not. The winner of the Battle Round will be granted the Contest Ribbon. Now, without further ado, join me in welcoming our first coordinator, from here in Snowpoint City…"

Lauren sat in the backroom, waiting as she watched each coordinator take their turn performing. She didn't feel particularly nervous this time around. In fact, she felt as confident as she did earlier in her contest days, around the time she met and began travelling with Brittany, Niko, and JJ. In her mind, Celestic Town was a minor setback. She knew she could do better, and if she had not taken as many critical risks as she did that day, she might've been able to face off against Brittany and at least have a chance at winning.

Now that she thought about it, the more she wondered if she could even beat Brittany in a battle. The brunette certainly is more travelled and, as a result of watching Niko battle so often, coupled with her own contest experiences in Hoenn, Lauren was unsure if she _could_ beat Brittany this time. It would be an even match, to be sure. But the more she considered it, the more she began to wonder.

Eventually, her name was called, and pulling a pokéball from her bag, she approached the stage. Summoning roselia, she performed a similar routine to her Celestic Town performance, which involved the thorn pokémon using toxic spikes in a circular pattern around the floor. Although this time, roselia somehow managed to use magical leaf to raise the spikes into the air, floating each spike from a variety of different heights. Roselia then danced around the stage, shooting bullet seeds from each of her rose-arms, successfully knocking each spike off of its leaf and onto the floor. Within a minute, roselia and Lauren were done, finishing off with a bow.

Lauren returned roselia to her pokéball amid the applause, and exited into the backroom where she sat down. She looked around at each of the other coordinators, all of whom were looking nervous. It struck Lauren as odd—usually the other contestants were feeling pumped up or determined to win. No, this was different.

 _It's the last contest before the Grand Festival, I bet…_ Lauren said. _Or, maybe the last announced one. Brittany mentioned that they usually have one a week or so before_. While this assumption didn't break her own faith in herself, it did make her wonder if she can use the nervousness of the other competitors to her advantage in some way. She sat down and pondered it while watching the others perform.

Eventually, all of the performances were finished, and Marian announced the top 8 proceeding to the Battle Round. Lauren fortunately made it, and was facing off against a tall redhead named Stephanie.

"And please welcome to the stage, Lauren from Canalave City and Stephanie from Eterna City!" Marian announced. Stephanie sent out a girafarig—a half orange, half black giraffe-like creature with a tiny little head on its tail. Lauren summoned haunter.

"Dark pulse!" Lauren shouted. Girafarig skillfully evaded the move with agility and then rushed forward with a move called zen headbutt, where its head began to glow bright blue, smashing into haunter. The gas pokémon rolled backwards, recovering from the attack. "Now, hypnosis!"

Haunter's eyes began to glow red as he emitted red rings from them in an attempt to put girafarig to sleep. The long neck pokémon closed its eyes, effectively dodging the attack. However, on Lauren's quick command, haunter launched another dark pulse that successfully hit girafarig, knocking it off of its feet and onto the stage floor.

Looking up, Lauren noticed that her bar was about even with Stephanie's at this point. She wanted to impress her audience with stylistic moves, but that was more difficult with haunter.

"Alright, haunter, dark pulse again!" Lauren shouted. The gas pokémon thrusted its floating hand forward, emitting a dark nexus of energy from it right at girafarig, who managed to gracefully evade it and rush forward with another zen headbutt. "Hypnosis!"

Red rings shot out from haunter's eyes again, this time successfully putting girafarig to sleep. Lauren commanded her pokémon to use dream eater now. Haunter calmed himself as he closed his eyes and began to search around for girafarig's mind. Once he did, he began to penetrate it, invading and corrupting the thoughts of the long neck pokémon.

As soon as it was clear haunter was having an effect, Lauren went in for the kill. "Haunter, dark pulse!"

Haunter fired one final nexus of energy at haunter, launching the giraffe across the stage and closer to its trainer, defeated.

"Girafarig is unable to battle, haunter wins! The victory goes to Lauren, who will proceed to the next round!" Marian announced. Lauren made another attempt at hugging haunter, but it only seemed to make her colder. Nevertheless, she proceeded into the backroom to wait for her next match.

The other matches went by relatively quickly, eventually resulting in the top four coordinators competing for Snowpoint City's ribbon. Lauren was matched up with a coordinator from Pastoria City, a young boy by the name of Jon.

"Porygon2, you're up!" Jon shouted.

" _Porygon2, the virtual pokémon. Normal type. It was upgraded to enable the exploration of other planets. However, it failed to measure up_."

"Infernape, I choose you!" Lauren shouted, summoning her flame pokémon. "Mach punch!"

"Conversion 2!" Jon shouted. Porygon2—a rounded, pink digital pokémon that looks akin to a drinking bird—began to glow briefly while infernape landed a powerful mach punch across its face. Lauren directed another mach punch, but this time porygon2 hardly appeared affected. "Psybeam!" Jon shouted.

The virtual pokémon summoned a blast of psychic energy that hit infernape directly in the chest, knocking her to the ground. Porygon2 then used tri attack, tossing spheres of fire, ice, and electricity all at once, and inadvertently stunning the flame pokémon.

"Infernape, get back up!" Lauren cried out. _Damn, this thing is good…_ She thought. _But we're not giving up. Infernape doesn't give up_. "Use flame wheel!"

Porygon2 then used a mixture of tri attack and psybeam, continuing to wail on the fire monkey while she slowly got back up. Once back on her feet, she formed a wheel of fire and rushed a porygon2, dragging it through the air and knocking it off of the stage before dropping to one knee out of exhaustion.

"Conversion 2!" Jon shouted. Porygon2 began to glow once more in an attempt to adapt to its situation. It then rose back onto the stage, hovering in front of the tired infernape. "Now, psybeam!"

"Infernape, dodge and use close combat!" Lauren shouted, finally understanding what conversion 2 did. It allowed porygon2 to adapt to its opponent by making itself resistant to that particular type. Infernape rolled to the side, dodging the psychic beam, and then scrambled back to her feet and rushed at porygon2, barraging it with punches and kicks that eventually defeated the virtual pokémon.

"Porygon2 is unable to battle, infernape wins! The victory goes to Lauren, who will now move on to the final round!" Marian announced.

Lauren sighed heavily, excited that she is moving on. She embraced infernape tightly before shaking Jon's hand and exiting into the backroom to wait for her final match.

In an odd twist of fate, she was facing her opponent from back in Celestic Town—Whitney. The one with the jolteon that she was unable to defeat.

"And for our final match, where the winner will be awarded with Snowpoint City's ribbon, we have Lauren from Canalave City and Whitney from Hearthome City!" Marian announced.

"Hey, it's you!" Whitney said, pointing to Lauren. "Nice to see you again!"

Lauren forced a smile. "Nice to see you, too! Best of luck!" Whitney nodded and, when Marian finished explaining the rules of the match, she sent out jolteon. In response, Lauren summoned glaceon.

"Glaceon, this is the same jolteon you fought last time. You can do this, though. I believe in you." Lauren said softly. "Now let's win this! Use icy wind!"

"Pin missile!" Whitney commanded, thrusting her hand forward. Both pokémon released their attacks. However, the icy wind proved to be more powerful, freezing the pin missiles and forcing them to fall to the ground. Gritting her teeth, Whitney then commanded jolteon to use quick attack! Glaceon did the same, but quickly followed up with bite, grabbing onto jolteon's yellow, spiky fur. "Thundershock!"

Glaceon immediately let go, yelping in pain as she felt the surge of electricity run through her mouth. Trying to recover, she was hit by a pin missile powered up by agility before being able to fully recover.

"Glaceon, you can do this! Use icy wind!"

Glaceon summoned a chilling wind once more, dancing around a little like Lauren taught her to. Jolteon attempted to run through the wind, but was significantly slower and unable to land a move until Whitney directed it to use quick attack. Jolteon burst forward at glaceon, who dodged with her own quick attack before using icy wind once more. This time jolteon collapsed to the ground, trying to warm herself up from the cold air by using thundershock, a resourceful move that seemed to impress the audience.

"Use quick attack and bite!" Lauren said, suddenly thinking of something that Niko used to do with his luxray, then a shinx. Glaceon burst forward, tackling jolteon and once more biting onto its yellow fur, albeit a little afraid this time. "Don't be scared, glaceon! Use bite and icy wind!"

Glaceon thought about that for a moment, and then realized what Lauren was trying to do. She bit down hard onto jolteon and channeled her ice energy into her teeth, effectively using ice fang. Jolteon lurched its head towards glaceon, doing the same with thunder fang. The two sat there for several moments, trying to subdue one another with their biting moves. Lauren and Whitney both watched their yellow bars decrease a little, albeit slowly for lack of style in their moves.

"Glaceon, let go and use icy wind!" Lauren eventually shouted.

"Jolteon, quick attack!" Whitney commanded Both pokémon let go and, before jolteon could act, it felt a strong gust of wind emanating from glaceon's teal dangles. Jolteon wasn't able to complete the move, having collapsed from the cold.

"Jolteon is unable to battle, glaceon wins! The victory in the Snowpoint City Pokémon Contest goes to Lauren!" Marian announced.

Lauren screamed softly as glaceon turned to her and pranced over, leaping up into her trainer's arms. No words were exchanged as the two soaked in the moment. In the stands, Niko, Brittany, JJ, and togepi all cheering loudly.

"Hey, good match." Whitney said, walking up to Lauren and holding her hand out. "You got me this time, hopefully we can have another rematch one day."

Lauren clasped her hand. "Count on it."

Marian then walked over to Lauren with a green ribbon in her hand. "Lauren, congrats on winning the Snowpoint ribbon. Is this your third one?" Lauren nodded. "I figured. Now you have qualified for the Grand Festival in Lake Valor. I hope to see you there in a few weeks."

Lauren nodded. "Thank you, Marian. I will be there with Brittany."

* * *

Lauren met up with her friends in the lobby, where Niko grabbed her and picked her up out of excitement. After bringing her back down to earth, Brittany and JJ both congratulated her with a hug as well.

"So, now what?" JJ asked aloud.

"Now, we celebrate. And then, off to Lake Valor." Brittany said, turning to Lauren with a smile.

The group went to a restaurant in the southern part of the city, near a port that was frozen over. It was an oddly beautiful site, reminding Niko of the Snowpoint Gym's battlefield. When they finished eating, they all sat there wondering how they were going to get to Lake Valor in time, since it would take a few weeks at best. That's when they saw Candice approaching them.

"Lauren, congrats! That's two wins in two days!" Candice said excitedly, bringing the blue-haired trainer/coordinator into a tight embrace. "What's next for you all?"

"The Grand Festival," Lauren said as she let go of Candice.

"Oh, man, that's not too far."

"Wait, what do you mean? We have to go down route 216 and 217 again." Niko interjected. Candice responded with a curious look, as if she knew something that they didn't.

"No you don't. Wait…you _did_?" When the four of them nodded, Candice clutched her chest in mock-exasperation. "No way…there's a rail station across that port," she pointed to the port outside the window, "that takes you to Celestic Town."

The group all slammed their heads onto the table, dumbstruck.

"Hah! Yeah, that's how most people get here nowadays. There's also a rail that takes people from Celestic Town to Solaceon Town. Makes it easier to travel. So, anyways, I'd take that rail to Solaceon Town and then walk from there. You'll definitely make it in time."

"Wow…thanks, Candice." JJ said appreciatively. "How long does it take by rail?"

"About a day to get to Celestic Town. Half a day to Solaceon Town." She shrugged. "I'll be at the Grand Festival, although not as a judge. I hope to see you two there. And I might be able to make it to the Pokémon League, but that depends on my class schedule. If I don't, I wish you and Lauren the best of luck, Niko."

"Thanks Candice. For everything. We really appreciate the advice."

Candice nodded, and then turned and walked away, joining hands with a taller, black-haired male. The group then went back to talking amongst one another, primarily about their new destination—Celestic Town once again, their first stop before Lake Valor.


	44. To the summit!

**Episode 44: To the summit!**

"What the hell is that!?" JJ shouted, pointing towards the sky. Niko, Brittany, and Lauren all looked directly upwards to see a massive black hole appearing over Mt. Coronet, which was only miles away from Celestic Town. Niko sheltered his eyes with his hand to get a better look, squinting a little as he tried to take in the enormity of what he was seeing.

"No idea…" Niko said, when suddenly they felt the earth shaking beneath them. Into the dark hole went a massive creature, although from their perspective it was smaller than an ant. "Should we check it out?"

"And scale the mountain?" Lauren protested. "Niko, that's really high up."

"Not the point. We've done stuff like this before. We can do it again." He said, turning to Brittany and JJ. The former nodded, albeit hesitantly, while JJ nodded with approval. Niko then turned to his girlfriend, who eventually gave in.

"Alright! Fine then! Let's go. But if I die, it's on you." She said, moving past Niko and walking towards the mart to grab supplies. Brittany and JJ quickly followed. As did Niko, who turned to take another look at the hole above Mt. Coronet, wondering what on Earth it could be.

* * *

 _24 Hours previous_

"Got your tickets?" JJ asked his friends, all of whom replied by holding the small slips of paper in the air. "Great, let's get going, then."

Upon hearing Candice's advice, the group boarded a rail train heading for Celestic Town, and planned to take a second one to Solaceon Town the following day. The trip would take roughly a day and a half in total, but it would speed up their travels immensely, since now that Brittany and Lauren had three contest ribbons, they could both compete in Sinnoh's Grand Festival held at Lake Valor in a couple of weeks.

The train was organized with four passengers per cabin. Each cabin had two long seats that could each fit two people, and were separated from the main aisle by a set of glass doors. Niko and his friends placed their bags above their cabin and went inside, with Niko and Lauren sitting on one end and JJ and Brittany on the other.

Much of the trip was spent either talking or sleeping. Since they weren't able to train or really interact with pokémon that couldn't fit in the cabin, the four of them didn't do much on the day-long trip to Celestic Town. Occasionally Niko would read from his book on Sinnoh myths. By now he had finished the sections on The Creation and the construction of Spear Pillar, and was now on a section detailing the potential for another world, possibly made of antimatter. He would occasionally read parts of it aloud for the others, but they soon fell asleep, and he would continue to read silently.

When they finally made it, each of them had difficulty standing back up, since they largely remained glued to their seats with a few exceptions. Walking out of their cabin and into the hallway, they noticed the lack of fellow passengers on their train. Not thinking much of it, Niko grabbed his bag from the overhead compartment and exited the train with his friends.

The next train for Solaceon Town didn't leave until the following morning, and so the four of them elected to spend most of the day either training or walking around the town. Niko wanted to take a look at some ruins in the northern part of town, but only after training a bit with his team, all of whom needed to stretch their limbs a little.

"Alright guys, come on out!" Niko shouted, summoning his full team. "It's been a long couple of days, but we've got one more gym battle to prepare for, so let's go!" He said, breaking into a jog that four of his five pokémon.

It was then that, during Niko's usual warm-up run, the four of them heard an explosion coming from the west. Running out of the practice battlefield at the Pokémon Center and into town, the four of them looked up and saw the massive black cloud above Mt. Coronet.

* * *

Trekking the mountain wasn't easy. With the friendly advice of someone in Celestic Town, they discovered a path inside the mountain that would take them higher up quicker. So with that knowledge, they began their journey.

"Niko, do you know where we're going?" Brittany inquired.

"Spear Pillar. I read it in my book." Niko responded as they entered the inside of the mountain. After exploring for a bit, they stopped. Niko looked around the massive cavern in front of him, trying to find some sort of path that led upwards. "Where was it that that lady said to go?"

"Um, she said something about going to the left, I think," Lauren said, leaning her head over, allowing her blue hair to hang inches above the ground. "Ah, that might be it!" She said, pointing to a smooth wall with markings on it. "Niko, do you recognize those?"

"Maybe…" He said, kneeling down and pulling his book from his bag.

"You brought that thing with you?" JJ asked, incredulously.

"Yup. Alright, let's see…" he said, quickly flipping through the pages until he got to a specific page with those markings. "These markings aren't just markings—they depict an event. You see there are three…things…shaped in a triangle," he drew a triangle with his finger while holding the book. "It's meant to represent the lakes, and the lake's guardians, too."

"And…? So?" JJ asked impatiently. Niko shot him a glare before continuing.

"So…this is definitely where we need to go. The lake guardians are important to the legendary pokémon in Sinnoh. How we get through here, though, I don't really know…"

"Why not through this hole?" Lauren said with a smirk. "Niko, something—or someone—already got up there, they must've used this path."

Niko shook his head, laughing to himself. "This is why I like you, Lauren." He said with a kiss on the cheek before walking into the human-sized hole Lauren found. Then, with the help of infernape and luxray, the group travelled up a tunnel for nearly an hour before reaching another larger room. From here, Niko relied on his book once more, trying to figure out a path to the Spear Pillar.

While he was sitting down, leaned against the wall of the cavern, Brittany and JJ went off in search of other exits, while Lauren stuck around with her boyfriend.

"So, what is this Spear Pillar exactly?" Lauren asked, leaning over to see the pages Niko was looking at. "And why is it so important that we go there?"

"It's the location where Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina—known as the Creation Trio—were created by Arceus, who is known as 'The Original One.' Legends also say that it is there that Sinnoh was created and, well, the entire world, although that theory isn't as popular. Why do we go there? Well, I think that's where the black hole is originating from, since Spear Pillar is said to be at the peak of Mt. Coronet. If we're going to investigate whatever's going on, we need to go there."

"Why do you have to be a hero?" Lauren asked playfully.

"What? I'm not—I just think somethings wrong and I want to see if I can help. Plus, a black hole appearing is _never_ good, right?"

"True, true. How close do you think we are?"

"Close. According to these maps here," he pointed to a map on the page, "we just need to go up a little further and we'll make it. Question is, where is a 'little further?'"

"Over here!" Brittany shouted from across the cavern, waving to Niko and Lauren. "I found a way outside!"

" _Outside_?" Lauren asked with slight shock in her tone. "We're probably pretty high up. Why would we go outside?" She and Niko began to walk towards their friends, both of whom were now standing outside, viewing the snowy environment around them, darkened by the black hole.

"It looks like it's the only way." JJ explained. He then put his coat on and continued looking around, returning togepi for safe measure. The group walked around the snowy summit of the mountain range with the aid of infernape, blaziken, and luxray. They were unable to see anything below them due to the heavy mist surrounding them. After spending half an hour walking around, JJ finally found a cave entrance on the other side of the mountain. As they walked in, Niko took another look at the black hole, which from his perspective covered the entire sky.

The next cavern they entered was far smaller than the others, but led to a series of tunnels that twisted and turned, all angling upwards inside the mountain. As they walked through them, Niko began to feel an odd sensation overcoming him that reminded him of their conflict at Sky Pillar in Hoenn.

"Niko, what do you think is up there?" JJ inquired. "Will we have to fight?"

"Dude, I have no idea what we'll see. I'm not an expert on any of this, but—" Suddenly the ground was shaking underneath them. "Woah…guess we should pick up the pace a little."

They did just that, reaching the peak within minutes. However, what they saw was far from what they expected.

Spear Pillar was a long platform with two rows of spear-shaped columns on each side, all leading towards a square platform with a triangle in the center. Now, the sky was pitch black, with the center of the black hole sitting directly above them. The most striking aspect of what they saw was not the Spear Pillar, or the black hole.

It was Cynthia, the woman they met back in Eterna City. She was staring up at the hole with a large, purple land shark pokémon standing next to her.

"Cynthia…?" JJ asked out loud, getting the blonde woman's attention.

"What in the hell are you four doing here?" She asked with a slight hint of anger in her voice. "This is not for children!"

"We're not children!" Lauren snapped back. "And what's going on? What's the deal with this black hole?"

Cynthia sighed heavily before approaching them with her pokémon. The group also started walking forward, meeting the tall woman in the middle. "How familiar are you with the legends of Sinnoh?"

"Niko is. He's got a book on it." Lauren replied. "We know about this Spear Pillar, and I think that's about it."

"Ah, I see. That's a good start. Well, several years ago a man named Cyrus led an organization named Team Galactic. Cyrus wanted to recreate the entire universe. To do that, he needed control over the 'Creation Trio,' which includes Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina. His plans were foiled by me and a group of trainers not unlike you four. He attempted to use the power of the Lake Trio—Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit—to create something called a 'Red Chain' in order to summon Dialga and Palkia. I figured out that the way to stop Cyrus was to destroy the Red Chain. With the help of the group of trainers, we ultimately defeated Cyrus, and disbanded Team Galactic.

"Now that brings us to today. Team Galactic used to have the help of a pokémon hunter by the name of J. Do you remember that woman we ran into back in Eterna City? That was her. J was part of the events of Spear Pillar the last time, but she was long thought to be dead. Apparently not, and she's back for vengeance of some sorts. I briefly got a chance to speak with her, and tried to understand her motives, but she disappeared into the black hole. I don't know where it leads."

"So…have you been looking for J since we met in Eterna City?" JJ asked.

Cynthia nodded. "Indeed. That was when it was clear to me that her motives weren't simply to collect a bounty, but to wreak real havoc upon the world this time, presumably for her near-death experience last time. This is all a theory, and how she gathered all of the things necessary to create this black hole is still a mystery to me. Either way, she is a very cunning and dangerous character. Which is why I want you all to leave now."

"That's not gonna happen." Niko said. "We've been in dangerous situations like this before. No way we're leaving you alone."

"Wait…so does that black hole lead somewhere, then?" Brittany asked, pointing up. "Because the way you're describing it, it sounds like J is still alive."

Cynthia sighed again, as if prepared to go into another long-winded explanation. "Have any of you ever heard of the Distortion World?" All four trainers shook their heads. "The Distortion World is a theorized alternative dimension that is the home to the pokémon Giratina, the third of the Creation Trio. It is said to be in a parallel world or some other universe from our own, and one of the possible gateways to it is from Giratina's birthplace—here. Although, it must be emphasized that, up until now, it has been only a theory, since there was never a way to actually prove it." She then looked up at the hole. "But now—I believe this black hole leads to the Distortion World. And J is inside it, looking for Giratina."

"Why would J need Giratina?" Niko wondered.

"To make it easier to summon and capture Dialga and Palkia, or could be that she wants total control of it in order to just wreak havoc on the world. Giratina is a very powerful pokémon, and just as strong as the other two. Either way, we need to stop it."

"How in the world are we going to stop it?" Lauren cried out. "How do we even get _in_ there?"

"Well, we'll stop J if and when we close the black hole, or should I say portal. How we get in there, you ask? I say we try jumping. If not, we can fly up there. My garchomp can carry one on his back, and can hold maybe one more."

"Staraptor might be able to take the lightest of us." Niko suggested. Cynthia nodded. "Then that leaves only two of us."

"Two of us can stay here in case J comes back with Giratina. Then, we'll fight it." JJ suggested. "As for who goes, I think Cynthia obviously should, and Niko should too."

"Why me?" Niko asked, genuinely surprised. His friends, however, were not.

"Niko!" Lauren shouted at him. "It's because of you we're up here! You should go! But…" she looked away. "I don't want anything to happen to you."

"Then come with me." Niko suggested. "We'll go together."

Lauren then looked around at her other friends, both of whom didn't seem to suggest anything, leaving the choice to up her. "I don't want to, but I also don't want to push anyone to do it."

"Then I'll go." Brittany suggested, stepping forward.

"No, Brittany. I'll do it." Lauren said, moving towards Niko. "I-I can do it. I believe in Niko and Cynthia, and I believe in myself. We'll take J down."

"Perfect. Then it's settled. Garchomp, pick up Niko. Niko, your staraptor can take Lauren, yes?" Niko nodded, summoning his predator pokémon. "Alright. JJ, Brittany, be on the lookout. We might need you."

JJ and Brittany nodded, pulling out their pokéballs and summoning their full teams in preparation, with blaziken and growlithe to keep them all warm.

"Good luck, guys. Don't die." JJ said, shaking Niko's hand and hugging Lauren. Brittany hugged both of them, and within minutes the three were up in the air, flying slowly towards the portal to the Distortion World.

* * *

 **Author's Note: So, I originally wanted to do more with the Hunter J/Team Galactic subplot, but I cut it for a few reasons: 1. I already had a lot going on, what with trying to fit in more team development, contests, and other misc. events like the Tag Team Tournament, so I didn't want to add more to an already long season. 2. Since this story _technically_ happens after the events in the anime (if it ever ends), Team Galactic is no more. I thought about creating some sort of Neo-Galactic, but since I didn't have the space in the story, Hunter J seemed like a sensible alternative to do a couple of episodes where she is the main villain, since her death isn't actually confirmed. Lastly, I still included the legendaries because of all of the regions in the games, I like the Sinnoh legendaries the most, and did want to dedicate _something_ to them. So, I apologize if it seems random or out of place, and I hope I am doing justice to the myths in the Sinnoh region. Thanks for reading!**


	45. The Distortion World

**Episode 45: The Distortion World**

Niko felt his body twist and turn as he, garchomp, and Cynthia entered the portal to the theorized Distortion World. As soon as they went into the portal, everything around him became pitch black and, for a moment, he thought he was dead. Then suddenly, he landed down hard onto a dirt-covered ground. Shaking his head and rubbing dust out of it, he eyed his surroundings.

The environment around him was, without a doubt, the most bizarre scene he had ever seen. All around him were floating platforms of earth in varying shapes and sizes. On some of the platforms sat tall, vine-like trees were appearing and disappearing at random. Off in the distance, Niko could have sworn he saw a waterfall running _upside-down_.

"This is it." Cynthia said, looking around. "It's real—the Distortion World is real." She took a step forward, nearly tripping on a rock that suddenly appeared under her. "Oh, dear. We have to be careful, then. How are you two feeling?"

Niko nodded. "I'm alright…" Lauren said, letting go of staraptor, who flew over towards Niko. "Now, we have to find J, right?"

"Indeed. I'll get on garchomp and survey the area. This place is unpredictable—the laws of physics don't apply here. It's best to stay put for a little bit until we know exactly where we're going, alright?"

Niko and Lauren nodded, and within moments Cynthia was off, flying around the bizarre world in front of them. Niko then tried sitting down on the ground, only to find a rock appear under him. "Oh, wow…" He remarked. "What do you think of this place?"

"It's…weird. I'm not really sure what to think of it. I certainly wouldn't want to live here."

"Same here. I don't think there's any food here, or any signs of life. It all kind of seems dead to me." Niko said, watching staraptor examine his surroundings. Like garchomp, he flew around to survey the world, also in search of another human. Niko was impressed—staraptor was doing that all on his own, without being asked to. "I hope we can find J and end this quickly. The sooner, the better."

"I couldn't agree more." Lauren replied, pulling some of her hair behind her ear. She continued pacing around for a bit while Niko sat there, still soaking in the world around him. She then turned to Niko, and then laughed a little.

"What?"

"It's just funny, I never took you to be a 'hero' kind of guy."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well…when we first met, you just seemed quiet, and then a little arrogant, and then emotionally distressed deep down. Never the kind of person I'd expect to try and save the world."

Niko's eyes widened. "Wow…I don't really know what to say to that. I mean, I guess you're right, but…"

Lauren seemed taken aback for a moment as well. "I-I'm sorry if that offended you. I-I wasn't trying to."

"No, it's fine. You're right. And even today I'm still all of those things, even just a little. As for a hero, I don't think so. Anyone would have done this if they had the ability to. Scaling the mountain and stopping J, I mean."

"But you did."

"Yeah, and your point?" Lauren was silent. Niko was going to continue when Cynthia and garchomp returned. "Did you find anything?"

Cynthia nodded. "She didn't see me, but I have a feeling Giratina did. It is definitely under her control."

"Where are they?" Niko asked. However, it didn't take long for him to get an answer, since the platform they were on began to shake furiously. Suddenly, off of the edge rose a massive serpentine-like pokémon with six ghost-like streamers on its back with red spikes at the tips. It had no legs, only small spikes on the sides of its body. It had golden mask with two large horns facing backwards. On its back was the same woman they had met back in Eterna City. Only this time, she wore a pair of black glasses and a cape.

"Found them…" Lauren said, taking a step backwards, nearly falling off of the platform. She pulled out a pokéball from her pocket, ready to fight at any time.

The woman then leapt into the air, somersaulting forward before landing on the platform in front of them. She stared them down with a villainous smirk etched on her face.

"I remember seeing you two back in Eterna City." J began, her voice emotionless. "Never did I expect to see either of you again but, life is full of surprises I guess." She began pacing around, hands behind her back and underneath her cape. Niko could now see a strap of an eyepatch running over her head and meeting under her glasses on the left side. "I don't remember if I've properly introduced myself. I go by J. You might be familiar with my work in the past. If you're not, it doesn't matter. Soon, nothing will matter."

"Why are you doing this?" Niko asked, almost desperately. "What's your motive?"

J raised an eyebrow. "I used to be a bounty hunter in my day, helping out whoever wished to hire me. Eventually, I found myself affiliated with Team Galactic. Are you familiar with them?" Niko and Lauren both nodded. "They tried to reshape the universe and failed. In their attempt I found myself on the verge of death, deep under Lake Valor in my airship with my crew. Somehow—today, I'm still not quite sure—I came out of it alive.

"In the aftermath, I went into hiding, sure that due to my involvement with Cyrus and his organization, I was a public enemy. But I was nonetheless angry. Angry at the world, angry at the people that ended my life as I used to know it. I travelled the world for some time, and after years abroad, I came back to Sinnoh, my home. Here, I studied Cyrus' life as much as I could, as well as the myths behind his plot. I was inspired by his vision, but found it a worthless endeavor all the same.

"I realized re-shaping the universe wasn't what I wanted to do. No, I wanted to exact revenge on those who ended my career. I looked for them, searched everywhere, and I found nothing. Somehow, those kids eluded me. However, I know they're out there, and I will find them. And I will destroy them and anything that gets in my way."

"Why Giratina, though? Why do you need control of the legendary pokémon? This doesn't make sense to me…" Niko asked. How was it that the bad guys always had terrible motives?

"There is hardly a pokémon out there as powerful as Giratina. It will help me draw out Dialga and Palkia, and with the entire Creation Trio under my command, I control space and time. I control EVERYTHING!"

"Well, we can't let that happen. Staraptor, aerial ace!" Niko shouted.

"Garchomp, dragon rush!" Cynthia commanded.

"Haunter, dark pulse!" Lauren said, throwing a pokéball into the air. All three pokémon launched their attacks, but Giratina simply disappeared. Suddenly it reappeared, launching the full force of its body at garchomp, knocking it and Cynthia off of the platform.

"Cynthia!" Niko shouted. As he was about to jump off staraptor caught him. The predator pokémon looked at him, and then dove directly down into the abyss below. Pulling out another pokéball, Niko summoned luxray. "Discharge!"

"Giratina, shadow force again!" J shouted. Giratina then disappeared once more into nothingness. Niko and Lauren stood back to back, as did haunter and luxray. Just as Giratina reappeared to attack, they saw garchomp tackle the four of them, dragging them off of the cliff and into the abyss as well.

"What the hell!?" Niko shouted as he, Lauren, luxray, haunter, and garchomp all fell downwards, eventually reaching a small white object floating in the air. Then, everything went white.

* * *

"Think they made it?" JJ eventually asked, holding a restless togepi. It had been a few minutes since the five pokémon and trainers went into the portal to the supposed Distortion World. Brittany and JJ were back in the real world to keep watch, in case anything tried to interfere.

"Probably. I'd like to believe they've met J already and are engaging her in battle." Brittany said, in her own mind hoping that was the case. Even though saving the world felt good, it worried her every time they did it. Especially last time. The events at Sky Pillar were too much for her to handle at the time.

JJ nodded in agreement. As he did so, he caught two figures approaching him from his peripherals. They were both woman, one with red hair and the other with purple hair. They both wore all-black garb with capes akin to their hair color. Upon the sight of the two young trainers, they smirked.

"What're you kids doing here?" The red-haired one said in a mocking tone. "Didn't mommy ever tell you to not go where you don't belong?"

"Who the hell are you?" JJ asked, looking genuinely confused.

"Who the hell am _I_? Child, I'm the famous Mars of Team Galactic!" She said, almost angrily.

"And I'm Jupiter of Team Galactic!" The purple-haired woman said with pride.

"Wasn't Team Galactic disbanded years ago…?" Brittany asked, not impressed with the woman.

" _Was_ disbanded. Team Galactic will rise from the ashes once more to take control of the Creation Trio and wreak havoc upon the world in an attempt to ignite Cyrus' vision for the universe. We are tasked with finishing what he started." Jupiter explained lazily. "Now, please, get out of our way."

"Well, J beat you to it. She's already inside the portal." JJ shot back. "Looks like you lost."

Mars cackled loudly. "We're _working_ with J. She was quite useful to us last time. Shame that we were separated for so long, thanks to those meddling children and that idiot blonde Cynthia. J has already taken control of Giratina, and is on her way back. Now, with the Red Chain," Mars said, opening her cape to reveal a glowing red set of jewels hooked onto her black belt, "we will once more summon the powers of Dialga and Palkia!"

"Oh no you won't. Blaziken, I choose you!"

"Umbreon, let's go!" JJ shouted. Mars and Jupiter both pulled out pokéballs of their own, a purugly and skuntank, respectively. The four pokémon then began to battle. Minutes in, they noticed the portal above them swirling faster than before, and out of it came Niko, Lauren, Cynthia, garchomp, luxray, haunter, and staraptor.

"Niko! Lauren!" Brittany said, briefly turning to them. "You made it back!"

"Did you defeat J?" JJ asked.

"Nope." Niko said, helping Lauren and himself stand back up. As he dusted his pants off, he looked up at Mars and Jupiter, thoroughly confused. "Who are these two?"

"Mars! Jupiter!" Cynthia bellowed out. "Why are you here?"

Once more Mars cackled loudly. "Of course, I should have expected you, of all people, to be a dunce. Some things never change do they? Cynthia, we're working with J, and we have the Red Chain once again, and we will command the Creation Trio with J."

"Like hell you will. Garchomp use—" Cynthia stopped. Mars then pulled off the Red Chain from her belt and held it in the air. It began to glow a bloody red color as the portal above them began to twist and swirl around. On both sides of the group of people, two smaller portals appeared facing them.

"Dialga! Palkia! Come to us!" Mars shouted. As she did so, J and Giratina emerged from the portal above, slowly descending to the ground behind Cynthia, Niko, and Lauren. The three trainers then turned to face their enemy for a rematch.

J smirked again. "Good work Mars, Jupiter. Now, with the power of the Creation Trio, we will quickly overwhelm the region and the world. But first…we have some pest control to do." J then held out a pokéball of her own. "Salamence, I choose you!"

"Luxray, discharge! Staraptor, aerial ace!" Niko shouted. Lauren commanded haunter to use dark pulse on Giratina, and Cynthia directed garchomp to attack salamence with dragon rush. Meanwhile, Brittany and JJ turned their attentions back to Mars and Jupiter, and their battle resumed as well.

"Blaze kick on skuntank!" Brittany commanded.

"Faint attack on purugly!" JJ called out. Soon enough, the entirety of Spear Pillar erupted into battle, the group of five and their pokémon challenging the three enemies and their legendary pokémon.

The battle raged on for several more minutes before another earthquake shook the peak of Mt. Coronet. Everyone immediately stopped to look over at the portals, which were glowing bright purple and bright blue.

Out of them emerged two massive pokémon. From the purple portal came a dark blue sauropod-like pokémon coated in a metal of sorts with a diamond resting on its chest. It had a fin-like structure on its back and a crest on its forehead. The other was a light purple theropod-like pokémon with stripes and marking of a darker shade and gray underarms and waist. It had rounded purple-striped plates on its shoulder, where two pink pearls lay in the center. It also had a long neck and a pointed white crest on the top of its head that extends to its wings, two strong horn-like tusks on the sides of its jaw, and a powerful tail.

" _Dialga, the temporal pokémon. Steel and dragon type. A legendary pokémon of Sinnoh. It is said that time flows when Dialga's heart beats_."

" _Palkia, the spatial pokémon. Water and dragon type. A legendary pokémon of Sinnoh. It is said that space becomes more stable with Palkia's every breath_."

"Dialga! Palkia! Giratina! The Creation Trio is now ours!" J shouted triumphantly. "Now, children, you will soon realize the mistake you made in confronting us here. Giratina, shadow force!"

"Dialga, roar of time!" Jupiter shouted.

"Palkia, spatial rend!" Mars commanded.

The Creation Trio all roared out, shaking the ground with their cries. Niko then grabbed Lauren and brought her to the ground, returning his pokémon before doing so. Lauren, Brittany, and JJ all did the same in an attempt at protecting them. By ducking, they all managed to evade the attacks at the last moment, but they were still surrounded by destruction in the form of the legendary pokémon.

"Niko…we have to fight this…" JJ said. "We won't make it out otherwise."

Niko nodded in response, drawing out his full team minus cranidos. He didn't want the young dinosaur-like pokémon to get too injured here. The other three drew out their full teams as well, while Cynthia controlled garchomp. In addition to the legendary pokémon, skuntank, purugly, and salamence remained.

Suddenly, the battle raged on, with the Creation Trio rising above the battle and aiming to end them quickly. That's when staraptor and garchomp flew towards them, distracting the three while their trainers fought below.

"Aim for the Red Chain!" Cynthia shouted, holding out another pokéball. "Milotic, you're up! Ice beam on salamence!" The attack—combined with glaceon's icy wind and prinplup's water pulse, successfully hit and froze the dragon type, frustrating J.

"DRAPION, GO! Finish them off!" J spat out. "Cross poison!"

The large purple and black scorpion scuttled forward, ignoring the attacks as it slashed at prinplup and glaceon with cross poison before grabbing Niko and Lauren with each of its pincers. Luxray, grotle, and infernape all rushed at drapion, who shot out a series of sludge bombs from its mouth, knocking all of them to the ground in a powerful motion.

Meanwhile, blaziken and wartortle had defeated skuntank and were now facing a pair of crobats. JJ's umbreon and growlithe tried to take down purugly, but the fat cat was too much for the two, eventually knocking them out but finding itself stunned by shroomish.

Seeing the battle as turning against them, Mars gripped the Red Chain again, and Palkia shot down from the sky to intervene on her behalf. "Dragon pulse!"

The spatial pokémon opened its mouth and released a powerful burst of energy at the four pokémon sitting in front of it, knocking all of them down and throwing JJ and Brittany several feet backwards. Just then, togepi jumped out of JJ's arms and ran towards Palkia.

"Togepi, no!" JJ shouted, scrambling up to stop the little pokémon. However, just as he did so, he saw togepi wagging her stubby fingers. Suddenly, a protective shield erupted around the two trainers and their pokémon, blocking Palkia's second round of dragon pulse. Togepi wagged her fingers a second time, this time a black nexus of energy launching out of them and hitting Palkia. "Wow…great job, togepi!"

"Niko! Lauren!" Cynthia said. "Milotic, aqua tail!" The champion shouted. Milotic rushed forward, its tail glowing bright blue. As it was about to slam it across drapion's face, the scorpion launched its tail outwards with incredible flexibility and grabbed onto milotic, forcing it upwards before slamming it down with incredible force.

"Drapion…crush them…" J said.

Niko and Lauren cried out as the pincers closed in on them. Niko could feel the pressure squeezing his arms and body together. He looked over, and Lauren had even more difficulty dealing with it than he did.

"Grotle…luxray…prinplup…" Niko shouted. He looked up and saw garchomp and staraptor losing their battle against Dialga and Giratina. All hope was lost. He was going to die.

Suddenly, an energy ball hit drapion directly in the face. Niko looked down and saw grotle charging at the scorpion, his eyes a mixture of anger and determination. Drapion then dropped Lauren and Niko to the ground and cross its arms, both of them glowing purple before it slammed them down and halting grotle in his tracks. The grove pokémon suddenly cried out as it began to glow purple, the poison taking hold of him.

"Grotle!" Niko shouted, leaping forward to help his pokémon. "You're going to be okay buddy. We'll be okay." Drapion then grabbed him again and tossed him into the air in preparation to use cross poison on _him_. As he began his descent, a white glow erupted from grotle, illuminating the entirety of Spear Pillar. Suddenly, Niko landed on what seemed to be a tree while he felt the earth shake underneath him.

Looking down, he hardly recognized the pokémon he was now sitting on. It wasn't grotle, to be sure. He rolled off of the tree and fell onto a massive tortoise shell with three large spikes jutting out of his right side and a small tree on his left. The shell was green with a gray rim. The pokémon roared out once more, shaking the earth beneath him. Niko looked at his surroundings. Everyone—his friends and other pokémon included—were laying on the ground.

"Is everyone okay?" Niko shouted out. He then saw them all begin to stir again. J immediately stood back up, furiously issuing commands to Giratina. However, the renegade pokémon wasn't listening.

"Giratina? Giratina! Listen to me!" She spat out. She then noticed Mars and Jupiter were knocked unconscious, the Red Chain lying next to the former, shattered in several places. Now Palkia and Dialga wouldn't listen to her. "Wh-what?"

Cynthia stood back up. "Torterra's earthquake forced the Red Chain out of Mars' hand, and I saw one of the pokémon run over to shatter it. Dialga and Palkia can no longer be controlled by any of you. It's over."

"No…NO!" J shouted, rushing towards Cynthia, her hands balled up into fists. She attempted to punch the champion, but found garchomp grab her arm and throw her to the edge of Spear Pillar, leaving her knocked out.

"Alright, so the Creation Trio is not under their control any more, what do we do with them? What do we do with J and Team Galactic?" JJ asked, picking togepi up and walking over to the others. "I'm really proud of you, by the way."

"Toge-priiii!" Togepi cheered happily.

"I'll deal with J, Mars, and Jupiter. I'm going to call the Celestic Town authorities and they will decide what to do with them. As for the Creation Trio, I would guess they'll just go back to wherever they came from." Cynthia said, looking up and watching Dialga and Palkia moving into their respective portals, giving the group an appreciative glance before doing so.

Giratina was the last one to leave, looking down at Cynthia, Niko, and Lauren in particular. It then raised its head to the sky and let out an ear-piercing cry before disappearing into the portal to the Distortion World.

"I can't thank you four enough for what you've done. I am in your debt. If there is anything you need in the future, please let me know."

The four trainers all looked at one another, all thinking of what they would want. It was then Niko who spoke. "A ride back to Celestic Town would be nice." He said with an exhausted laugh. He then turned to grotle's evolution—torterra. Walking up, he noticed how exhausted the continent pokémon was. Niko pat him on the head and sat down next to him, wanting to fall asleep in that moment. "Thanks for everything, buddy. I'm…really…proud of you…" Niko said in between yawns. He then fell asleep against torterra's shell.

* * *

After a long night's rest, the group woke up in Celestic Town ready to continue their journey. Even though all four of them were still tired, they took the next train to Solaceon Town that morning, choosing to sleep most—if not all—of the way there. By the time they arrived in Solaceon Town, they were ready to continue on towards Lake Valor, where Lauren and Brittany would compete in the Sinnoh Grand Festival, in what was to be the culmination of both of their contest careers in the region.

"Brittany," Lauren said as they left Solaceon Town at sunset. The brunette turned to her curiously. "You ready?" She held her hand out.

Brittany smiled eagerly, clasping her friend's hand. "Of course I am. May the best woman win."


	46. A storm of dances and a sea of smiles

**Episode 46: A storm of dances and sea of smiles**

"Welcome one and all to the Sinnoh Grand Festival, here at Lake Valor! Excitement is in the air as Sinnoh's most talented coordinators are about to give it their all in the quest for the Ribbon Cup. Each participant has had to have earned at least three ribbons in contests hosted all around the region! As always, I am your host Marian, and in just a moment we will commence the first round of appeals! But first, let me break down the sequence of events for you all!

"There are two parts of the Grand Festival—the Appeals Round and the Battle Round. The Appeals Round is first, and will be conducted on these three colored stages here!" Marian said, motioning her hand towards the blue, green, and red stages placed around her. "Each stage will be judged by two of our six judges! This competition and the Battle Round will be held under the double performance rules, which means that every coordinator must use two pokémon per appeal or battle. Lastly, in the Appeals Round each coordinator will be scored on a 100-point scale by our judges. The top 32 will advance to the Battle Round.

"After a day of rest, the Battle Round will commence! Each battle will be conducted on a single stage, and the number of judges will be reduced to four, instead of six. Each coordinator will be randomly matched up until the finals. Battles will be conducted in the same way as any ordinary contest, with the exception of still being under the double performance rule. The trainer to win all five battles in the Battle Round—and the only coordinator left standing—will win the entire Festival. They will be awarded the Ribbon Cup and be named Top Coordinator of Sinnoh!

"Now, allow me to introduce our judges for the Appeals Round: Raoul Contesta, Mr. Sukizo, Pastoria City's Nurse Joy, Jubilife City's Nurse Joy, Gym Leader Fantina of Hearthome City, and Zoey of Snowpoint City, who is a former Top Coordinator from this very Festival! For the Battle Round, both Nurse Joys will not be judges.

"Now, without further ado, let us open the Grand Festival with our first three coordinators!"

* * *

"Roselia, again! Petal dance!" Lauren directed. The thorn pokémon leapt back onto the sandy beach in front of her and twirled around, summoning an array of petals around her. While using grasswhistle, roselia was also signing the toxic spikes into the air. "Wow! Great job!" Lauren said, running over and high-fiving roselia's blue rose. "We're finally getting somewhere.

The group had been staying at the Hotel Grand Lake for a couple of days by now. After the incident on Mt. Coronet, they travelled east and then south towards Lake Valor. Much of the time was spent walking, but on the few occasions that they did have, Brittany and Lauren spent it exclusively practicing and training for the upcoming Grand Festival. Both were nervous beyond belief, and so Niko and JJ largely let them be, unless it was for a practice battle or to judge their performances.

Once they got to Hotel Grand Lake, a couple days before the Grand Festival, the two coordinators spent _all_ of their time practicing and practicing, exhausting their teams of pokémon to the limit on the first day. The second day they practiced less, as it was the day before the opening round of the event, and the two needed to register.

Walking into the massive Contest Hall—the same one they competed in a couple months ago on their first pass by Lake Valor—Lauren was shocked when she noticed the sheer amount of people not just registering, but also socializing in the several small lounge areas scattered around the lobby.

"Is it usually this busy?" Lauren asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"It was in Hoenn, but don't worry about it. We only had 168 contestants that time."

" _Only 168_!?" Lauren said, taken aback by the number.

Brittany giggled under her breath. "I'm surprised that this is new information to you. It's a _Grand_ Festival, right? There are dozens of contests being held all over the region. We just happened to only go to the major ones. But…" She hugged Lauren. "You're going to be just fine. I was this nervous last time, too. But then I made it into the Top 8, so you have nothing to worry about!"

The two continued up to the registration desk, where a young man roughly their age sat with a bright smile on his face. "Hello, ladies! How may I help you?" He asked, shaking each of their hands.

"Doing just fine. We're both here to register." Brittany said, pulling out her three ribbons from Floaroma Town, Jubilife City, and Celestic Town, as well as her pokédex. Once the man checked them all, he then gave the ribbons and dex back to her, as well as a pamphlet with a map, information about the Grand Festival, and the hotel services available to them. He then gave her a key. "Oh, is this for our dorm?"

"Indeed! It's a two-bed, so your friend and you can share a room." He said politely. Brittany thanked him and walked away. "Now miss, let's get you registered."

Lauren smiled, handing him her ribbons from Jubilife City, Solaceon Town, and Snowpoint City. The process took less than a minute, and she also received the same registration items that Brittany got. Thanking the man, she turned and walked away as well. Once she found her brunette friend, she noticed Brittany was walking with a familiar orange-haired friend of theirs.

"Lauren!" Mikey said, walking over and embracing her. "How have you been? It's been so long!"

"Yeah, it has. Glad you were able to qualify!" Lauren said, still nervous about it all, but excited to see her friend again.

"Mhmm, same to you! So tell me, how are you and Niko doing, eyy?" Mikey said, nudging Lauren a little. The blue-haired coordinator blushed a little before answering.

"We're just fine. We both have seven badges now, and after this we're going for our last one."

"Wow! Competing in a Grand Festival _and_ the Pokémon League? You're incredible! Like…a super trainer!"

Lauren continued to blush. "Well, thank you. I appreciate that. But to be honest, I just barely qualified. My last ribbon was in Snowpoint City."

"So? Girl, don't sell yourself short! You're an incredible coordinator! And your pokémon are so fine too! I'll be lucky if I can beat you here!"

"We all have to make it through the first round, though." Brittany said, pulling out the pamphlet and looking through it. "Oh, it's a little different from Hoenn, that's for sure. I do remember someone telling me contests differ by region."

"What's different about it?" Mikey asked.

"There's only one appeal portion this time. In Hoenn there were two. So, only one round before we get to the Battle Round. That's…actually really nice. But otherwise it's the same—top 32 advance."

"Out of how many registrants?" Lauren wondered.

"Well, it's not gonna say here, obviously. We'll know that tomorrow probably." Brittany said. "But we should go move our things to our dorm. It was great seeing you again, Mikey!" Brittany said cheerfully, giving their friend and rival a side-hug before walking out of the Contest Hall.

After moving their things into the dorm they were staying in, the two went back down to the beach near the Seven Stars Restaurant and continued practicing for the rest of the day.

Meanwhile, Niko and JJ spent much of their day either training Niko's pokémon or relaxing in the Hotel Grand Lake. Niko didn't want to feel like he was distracting Lauren, and JJ felt that the coordinators needed some space before their big event. After watching how nervous Brittany was initially, the boys both agreed to stay out of their way. The four finally reunited for dinner at the Seven Stars, where they all chose not to battle and instead simply enjoy the night before the storm.

The last thing Brittany and Lauren did before turning in was talk with their individual teams, as Brittany had done right before the Hoenn Grand Festival.

"Alright guys, finally we're at the Grand Festival." Brittany began, looking around at wartortle, tangrowth, pikachu, blaziken, spheal, and vespiquen. "Most of you remember what it's like. It's nerve-wreaking, huh?" The pokémon—minus vespiquen—nodded, but looking more confident than before. "And…I don't care how far we go. I want to win, yeah, but as long as we all try our best I'll be happy. I've loved being on this journey with all of you, regardless of the outcome here."

On the other side of the beach, Lauren was sitting with haunter, roselia, infernape, lopunny, and glaceon. "So, this is it guys…the Grand Festival. We've come a long way, all of us. And I'll always be proud of you five, no matter what happens. And hey, even if we don't win, we've still got the Pokémon League to look forward to, right?" The five of them nodded happily. "So let's just go out there and do our best! Show Sinnoh what we're made of!"

Both teams cheered simultaneously.

* * *

Of the 120 coordinators competing, Brittany was the 10th, and Lauren was the 56th. Mikey, who sat with them in the massive backroom for most of the Appeals Round, was 98th.

The first nine coordinators looked impressive enough, but Brittany was undeterred, which surprised both her and Lauren, who was starting to get a little nervous. Then, the 10th, 11th, and 12th coordinators were called up, and so Brittany stood up from her bench and gave one last look—and a smile—to Lauren and Mikey before heading off onto the stage.

"And next we have Brittany from Vermilion City, Cameron from Chocovine Town, and Abby from Oreburgh City!" Marian announced. All three coordinators walked onto the stage, each dressed up. Brittany was at the red stage, and as she got there she noticed Fantina and one of the Nurse Joys were her two judges for the round. Bowing to the both of them, she withdrew two pokéballs mid-bow and shot them into the air as she sprang back up into a straight position. Out of the two pokéballs came spheal and blaziken.

"Alright spheal, start by balancing ice ball on your nose. Blaziken, use attract and kick the heart into the air with blaze kick!" Brittany called out.

The two then began their performance, with spheal performing a simple ball balance on his nose while blaziken kicked around pink hearts. Then Brittany began to add more to her performance.

"Spheal, launch out ice balls into the air. Blaziken, kick the balls with double kick!" Brittany commanded. Like a pitching machine, spheal conjured ice ball after ice ball in seemingly random directions, and blaziken would kick then to the ground regardless of how far or how high they were. Soon enough, it became clear that blaziken was actually dancing, leaping from one end of the stage to another gracefully. "Now, switch it to blaze kick!"

The tall chicken-like pokémon continued, her ankles lighting up on fire before she kicked each ice ball, knocking it to the ground where it shattered in a cloud of vapor, almost like a psychic's crystal ball smashing into pieces. Both pokémon, on Brittany's command, ended the performance, both bowing to their judges and returning to their pokéballs. Brittany then bowed, and left the stage.

"Wow! That was awesome, girl!" Mikey said, running up to Brittany and embracing her. "You totally killed it out there. At first it looked like blaziken was just kicking balls around, but it totally looked more like dancing! The practice for that must've been intense!"

"Heh, thanks Mikey. Blaziken is a graceful pokémon regardless. I'm actually a little surprised at how well it went."

She then sat down next to Lauren, who also congratulated her. But that was the least of her worries, since her own appeal was coming up soon. As if no time had passed by, it was finally Lauren's turn, since 55, 56, and 57 were up next.

"And now we have Owen from Lilycove City in Hoenn, Lauren from Canalave City, and Samson from Nimbasa City in Unova!" Marian announced. Lauren was directed towards the green stage, where her judges were Nurse Joy from Pastoria City and Mr. Sukizo. Like with Brittany before her, she bowed to the judges and then slowly stood straight up, tossing two pokéballs into the air to begin her performance, summoning roselia and haunter.

"Roselia, toxic spikes!" Lauren called out. The thorn pokémon lifted her rose-arms and shot out small purple spikes in a circular shape around the stage. "Now, petal dance! Haunter, shadow punch!" She continued. Roselia then began dancing around in one spot, pink and green petals erupting around her, moving along with her. Meanwhile, haunter floated above her, throwing spectral fists out at each of the spikes. However, instead of punching them, haunter was picking them up, giving the spikes the illusion of floating in the air at various heights and angles. Haunter then threw them around, eventually juggling the toxic spikes on the many shadow punches he was controlling at the same time. While he tossed around the spikes, the gas pokémon was laughing and smiling and enjoying the whole performance, maybe more than roselia or Lauren.

After seeing a satisfied—and amused—look on Mr. Sukizo's face, Lauren ended the performance, feeling confident in haunter and roselia's ability to please the two judges. All three bowed before Lauren returned her pokémon to their pokéballs and left the stage for the backroom.

Like with Brittany, Mikey ran up and hugged each one, congratulating her on her performance and how lovely roselia and haunter were, which made Lauren blush a little. There, they sat and waited for Mikey's performance.

Meanwhile, Niko, JJ, and togepi were sitting in the stands watching the various performances. When Lauren and Brittany went up, they both cheered loudly and watched with pleasure. "I think they'll both make it to the Battle Round, don't you think?" Niko asked.

"Definitely. These are the best performances they've ever done, actually. And Brittany's done some pretty impressive performances before."

Niko nodded. "And Lauren's was incredible, too. I was watching her practice that one the other day. It looked odd at first, but it picks up towards the end. Plus, it didn't hurt that haunter looked so happy with himself, like he had finally mastered something that he's wanted to for a long time."

"Haunter's always a happy pokémon, though. But I agree, he really looked in his element there. Pleasing others was always something he's enjoyed doing. Roselia is just a graceful pokémon, period."

"And Blaziken looked powerful in Brittany's performance. And spheal is a solid complement to her, too."

"Well, she could have used anyone with blaziken. She meshes well with most of Brittany's pokémon, because she's useful in both battles and in performances. Especially now that she's evolved. I can't wait to see blaziken in action in the Battle Round."

Niko laughed. "Yeah, me too. Oh, look. Mikey's up!" They both leaned forward to see Mikey, who was on the blue stage—the furthest from their vantage point. The orange-haired coordinator summoned his ambipom from the Lake Valor contest, as well as a froslass. Both pokémon then began to dance as well, with froslass casually throwing ice shards into the air and having ambipom smash them into small, glittering pieces. The two continued this and other interesting moves before ending their performance.

After another half hour, the Appeals Round was finished, and Niko and JJ watched, just like Brittany and Lauren were doing in the backroom, as Marian announced the top 32 coordinators who would proceed to the Battle Round, to be held the day after next.

Almost instantly, 32 profiles appeared on a massive set of monitors hanging from the ceiling. On it were Lauren's, Brittany's, and Mikey's faces, as well as other familiar faces, like Whitney's—the girl who Lauren had a small rivalry with in Snowpoint City. Then, the first matches for the Battle Round were announced. Lauren, Brittany, and Mikey were all facing off against strangers for the first round.

The four—plus Mikey—went to a restaurant near the dorms for dinner. The three coordinators didn't look nearly as exhausted as they maybe should have been. Rather, all three were excited for the Battle Round to begin.

"Well, all three of you did an excellent job." Niko said, almost looking appreciative. "You guys definitely kept us on our seats."

"Yeah, especially you, Mikey." JJ added. "You were performing the furthest from us! We had to lean over to get a better view!" The table laughed a little at JJ's attempt at a joke.

The following day, Brittany and Lauren then began practicing their pokémon's moves, as if they were preparing for a gym battle. Here, Niko and JJ were allowed to join in, especially since the former of the two benefitted from the training as well. Occasionally they would practice battle, but those wouldn't go very far, since none of them wanted an accidental injury the day before the Battle Round began.

* * *

"And now for the first match in the Battle Round! We have Lauren from Canalave City versus Courtney from Veilstone City!" Marian announced. Lauren—in her blue flower dress—approached the stage with two pokéballs in hand. Her opponent—a short, dark-haired, dark-skinned young girl—did the same, summoning a corsola and a bronzor. Lauren countered with roselia and infernape.

The battle lasted a couple of minutes, with Lauren ending up the victor by knocking out both of Courtney's pokémon, who proved to be more of a challenge than she had originally expected. But nevertheless, she was moving on to the top 16, which was pleasing enough, and gave her pokémon more confidence.

Brittany was the 6th match in the round. She faced an older boy from Johto. In this match, she used her pikachu and vespiquen to counter his crobat and beautifly. Unlike with Lauren, Brittany had a far easier time, with pikachu delivering the final blow to crobat to win her the match, even though the electric mouse ended up poisoned. She also excelled in the stylistic aspects of battling, and thus lost little points relative to her opponent. Like with Lauren, she was quite proud of her performance, and just as pleased with making it into the top 16. Soon enough, she would be in the top 8 again, and would be given the opportunity to show her improvement since Hoenn's Grand Festival the previous year.

Mikey and Whitney also made it to the top 16 after two rougher battles against relatively strong opponents. Mikey's ambipom made a comeback against a prinplup and delcatty, ultimately handing Mikey the win. Whitney's jolteon and piloswine both etched out a victory of style after the timer ran out on an unusually lengthy match against a munchlax and magmar.

Sitting in the backroom, Lauren and Brittany both sighed breaths of relief before hugging one another. There would be a quick lunch break before the second round—the top 16 coordinators—began. Before this, though, Marian revealed the match-ups for the next round. Brittany was going against a stranger, as was Mikey, but Lauren and Whitney were about to have their second rematch.

"Oooh, that'll be fun to watch." Brittany commented, eying Lauren with a satisfied grin. "You're gonna do great!"

"I sure hope so." Lauren said, seeming a little unsure of herself.

"Oh, don't worry about it!" Brittany replied, slapping Lauren on the shoulder. "I believe in you. And so does Niko. And JJ."

Lauren turned to her friend. "Of course. Thanks, Brittany."

* * *

 **Author's note: I had to cut the first round of battling here for time and space purposes. With two main characters competing, it would simply take too long to write out every single battle. Sounds lazy, and it might be, but it's easier to digest, I think, from a reader's standpoint. Either way, I hope you enjoy! The next episode will be pretty crazy, so look out for that!**


	47. Brittany from Vermilion City

**Episode 47: Brittany from Vermilion City**

Lauren stepped up to the stage at the same time Whitney did. This would be her third match against the coordinator from Hearthome. They barely knew each other, but it was partly because of Whitney that Lauren's eevee evolved into glaceon. This battle, they both hoped, would finally settle the score.

"And for the first match-up in the top 16, we have Whitney from Hearthome City versus Lauren from Canalave City!" Marian announced just as two profiles appeared on the monitors above the stage depicting each coordinator and the two yellow bars underneath, representing their overall points. The first coordinator to lose all their points—and thus deplete the yellow bar—would lose the entire match. After explaining the rules of the match, Whitney and Lauren both summoned their two pokémon.

"Haunter, glaceon, I choose you!" Lauren shouted out.

"Jolteon, azumarill, you're up!" Whitney shouted cheerfully. "Pin missile and water pulse!"

"Haunter, dark pulse on the pin missile, glaceon use icy wind!" Lauren commanded. The gas pokémon thrust his detached hand forward and unleashed a nexus of black energy at the green missiles, engulfing each in the darkness. Glaceon then summoned a gale of cold air that froze the water pulse, causing it to drop to the ground and shatter. "Now, hypnosis on jolteon, quick attack on azumarill!"

"Jolteon, use thunderbolt! Azumarill, protect!" Whitney called out. The aquarabbit pokémon conjured a protective shield around itself and watched glaceon slam directly into it. Meanwhile, jolteon unleashed a powerful bolt of lightning, which narrowly missed haunter. The ghost then emitted red rings from his eyes, which seemed to put jolteon to sleep. "Azumarill, hydro pump on haunter!"

"Glaceon, quick attack! Haunter, dream eater!" Lauren shouted. Just as haunter invaded the electric type's dreams, glaceon rushed forward and slammed into azumarill, evading the hydro pump by an inch. Both pokémon crashed onto the ground, which glaceon took advantage of and used ice fang, clamping onto azumarill's tail and refusing to let go.

"Azumarill, water pulse!" Whitney shouted as she glanced over and watched jolteon cry out in its sleep, haunted by the dream eater.

"You're doing great, haunter!" Lauren said happily. "Now, dark pulse on azumarill! Glaceon, icy wind!"

"Azumarill, protect!" Whitney shouted, but it was too late. Haunter and glaceon ganged up on the aquarabbit pokémon and soundly defeated it. Just then, jolteon woke up and leapt at haunter, unleashing a thunderbolt directly in front of it.

"Azumarill is unable to battle!" Marian announced. Just then, glaceon leapt at jolteon with quick attack, only to be met with a Thunderfang. Haunter attempted to join in with shadow punch, but jolteon wasn't having any of it, unleashing another thunderbolt in the gas pokémon's direction, and temporarily stunning it.

Lauren steeled herself, breathing deeply. "Glaceon, icy wind!"

"Jolteon, thunderbolt!" Whitney shouted. The two attacks collided only feet from their originators. However, glaceon's lasted a little longer, which gave her the opportunity to slow jolteon down.

"Glaceon, quick attack into ice fang!" Lauren shouted. The fresh snow pokémon burst forward, a trail of white light appearing in her wake. Glaceon then slammed into jolteon and bit down on it, sending a cold surge through the electric type. Jolteon cried out, trying to fight back with thunder fang, but glaceon was positioned in a way that jolteon couldn't reach. Whitney then commanded jolteon to use thunderbolt, but it was halted when haunter came out of nowhere and used shadow punch to knock jolteon back. "Haunter, dark pulse! Glaceon, detach and use icy wind!" Lauren shouted, thrusting a fist forward.

Both attacks focused on jolteon, quickly ending the lightning pokémon and Whitney's run in the Grand Festival.

"Jolteon is unable to battle, haunter and glaceon win! The victory goes to Lauren from Canalave City, who will be moving on to the next round!" Marian declared.

Lauren ran onto the stage to hug glaceon and _attempt_ to embrace haunter, who simply cheered wildly. Suddenly, she then felt a hand touch her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Whitney and jolteon standing before her.

"Great match again, Lauren." She said quietly. "I guess you are the better coordinator."

"But you're not bad yourself. I think if haunter didn't use hypnosis it would've been much harder for us to win that."

"Well, anyways best of luck. I hope you win the whole thing." Whitney said happily, holding her hand out. "And hopefully we can have another rematch one day."

Lauren once more clasped it. "I agree."

Brittany's battle was next. It went quicker than she had expected. She went up against a coordinator from Jubilife City who used a butterfree and bibarel. In response, she summoned wartortle and pikachu, and won within two minutes. It was in the aftermath of this match that she began to think she might have a shot at getting to at least the semifinals. She hasn't had a difficult match up until this point.

Mikey also proceeded to the next round, defeating a pair of raichu and pidgeot with his rapidash and chimecho. It was more difficult for him, but he managed to etch out another win with rapidash's new more, flare blitz.

It was the end of the day, with the final three rounds of the Battle Round commencing the following day, and the group decided to go back out for dinner at the Seven Stars.

"So Niko, what'd you think of today?" Lauren asked as they walked, arm in arm, towards the restaurant.

"A lot of great battles. Both of yours were really exciting to watch. The one with Whitney had me on edge a little. That jolteon of hers is tough."

"Yeah, but I won though! I'm in the top 8!" She said excitedly. "That's what you placed last time, right Brittany?"

The brunette nodded, walking to the couple's left. "Yep! Hopefully both of us can beat that record tomorrow!"

"Well, if you do, you both realize the chances of you having to eventually face each other are getting bigger, right?" JJ said. Brittany and Lauren both nodded, but in truth neither of them had really thought much of it. It crossed Brittany's mind a few times at best, but she was far focused on simply beating the top 8.

But JJ was right—they both knew that they might face each other. In that case, they both mentally agreed that they would go all-out, and hold no punches back.

After dinner, after departing from Niko and JJ, and then Mikey, Lauren and Brittany began walking towards their dorm when the former stopped. "What's up?" Brittany asked, turning back to look at her blue-haired friend a few feet behind her.

"I-I'm going to go down to the beach for a bit. You know, to clear my head."

"Is everything alright?" Brittany asked curiously.

"Oh, of course it is! It's just a lot to take in, you know?"

Brittany smiled. "I understand. See ya later. And be careful, alright?" Lauren laughed a little in response before waving farewell and turning towards the beach. _I wonder what she's up to…_ Brittany though, looking back at Lauren walking at an even pace in the direction of the beach.

Lauren got to the beach and summoned infernape. "Hey, I want to try learning a new move with you, alright…?" Infernape nodded, and they began.

* * *

The following day, Marian announced the match-ups for the top 8 in the Battle Round. As it turned out, Lauren—the third match—would be facing some stranger. However, Brittany and Mikey would be facing off in the fourth and last match to determine who will proceed to the final four. The three of them all looked at one another in slight shock. Ultimately, Mikey and Brittany turned to each other and shook hands.

"Best of luck." They both said to one another, and then waited for their turn.

Before them, Lauren went up against a coordinator from Pastoria City who had a sudowoodo and electabuzz with her roselia and glaceon. After a long-fought battle that lasted the entire five minutes, Lauren came out on top without losing either pokémon, although both were exhausted beyond belief. Walking into the backroom, she saw Brittany get up and hug her.

"You made it to the semifinals. I'm so proud of you." She said.

"Thanks. Now go out there and join me, alright?" Lauren said before letting go of the hug. She nodded to Mikey as well before the two walked onto the stage that she had just exited.

"And now we've got Brittany from Vermilion City versus Mikey from Sunyshore City! This battle will determine the final four coordinators who will move on to the semifinals!" Marian announced as both coordinators entered on opposite ends of the stage. Mikey summoned his rapidash and gardevoir, a pokémon Brittany wasn't aware he owned. In response, Brittany sent out spheal and vespiquen.

"Spheal, aurora beam! Vespiquen, use power gem!" Brittany commanded decisively.

Mikey smirked. "I enjoy your determination, Brittany. This will be fun. Rapidash, bounce into the air! Gardevoir, use calm mind!" Mikey said plainly. The fire horse leapt into the air, dodging the pink gems aimed directly at it. Meanwhile, spheal unleashed a rainbow-colored energy beam at gardevoir, who was in a meditative state, but was nonetheless harmed by the move. "Now, gardevoir, magical leaf on spheal!"

"Vespiquen, take the hit and respond with power gem!" Brittany commanded. The queen bee nodded, breaking slightly from Brittany's orders and summoning her bees to protect spheal while she attempted to block the magical leaf. It failed, with the purple-colored leaves weaving around vespiquen and directing towards spheal. However, the bees did protect the ball pokémon successfully, leaving spheal open to use aurora beam and hit gardevoir.

Rapidash then landed on top of vespiquen, knocking it down. "Flamethrower on spheal!" Mikey commanded. Rapidash opened its maw and unleashed a powerful jet of fire that was intended for spheal. However, Brittany quickly commanded double team, which allowed spheal to momentarily dodge the attack, only to retaliate with water gun.

"Vespiquen, power gem on rapidash! Spheal, water gun on rapidash!" Brittany called out. Both pokémon aimed their attacks at the fire horse, and would have been successful had gardevoir not picked spheal up with psychic and launched it across the stage before using magical leaf on vespiquen while rapidash used bounce once more. "Spheal, can you get up?" Brittany asked. Spheal nodded, rolling back onto his flippers. "Excellent. Use aurora beam on gardevoir! Vespiquen…" She said, smirking. "Wait a moment, alright?"

Mikey's eyebrow raised. "Gardevoir, psychic on vespiquen!" He declared. However, just as the embrace pokémon was about to attack, it got hit in the abdomen by the aurora beam, knocking her back a little. "Rapidash, bounce!"

"Vespiquen, power gem upwards!" Brittany shouted. Like she did in a previous contest, vespiquen swung her abdomen upwards towards the ceiling and, just as rapidash was about land, a barrage of pink gems slammed into the horse's underside, briefly launching it back into the air when it eventually crashed onto the ground. Eventually it got up, but while it was preoccupied spheal and vespiquen turned to gardevoir. "Attack order! Ice ball!" She commanded.

Spheal conjured a series of ice balls, and with each ball launched vespiquen quickly coated them with bees, manipulating the hive to swarm around the ice. A couple of them hit gardevoir, who attempted to use psychic to toss them aside.

"Flare blitz!" Mikey shouted, this time authoritatively. Suddenly, vespiquen was hit in the side by a rapidash _coated_ in fire. Rapidash was merciless—it dragged vespiquen across the stage, which while lowering Mikey's bar, also lowered Brittany's a little, too.

"Bug bite!" Brittany commanded. Vespiquen attempted to, but the fire proved to be too much for it. Rapidash halted its onslaught, leaving the queen bee to collapse onto the ground, defeated.

"Vespiquen is unable to battle!" Marian declared. Just then, rapidash also collapsed from exhaustion. As Brittany would later find out, flare blitz is an exhausting move. "Oh? And rapidash is unable to battle, too! How exciting! Only gardevoir and spheal remain!"

"Oh, please Brittany. I hate to say it, but spheal is unevolved, and gardevoir is fully evolved. Good luck!" He said with a wink.

 _That's it._ Brittany thought to herself. "Spheal, double team!" Spheal, having also heard Mikey's comments, nodded, duplicating himself. "And again!" Spheal's copies duplicated themselves, creating a wall of spheals that surrounded the stage. "Now, aurora beam!"

"Gardevoir, psychic on all of them!" Mikey commanded. It was too much for the embrace pokémon, however. The multiple aurora beams all hit gardevoir at once, overwhelming it with aurora energy. The psychic type fell to its knees, clearly disturbed by the move. "Calm mind. C'mon, we can do this…"

"Spheal, end it with ice ball!" Brittany shouted, thrusting her hand forward. Spheal conjured a massive ball of ice, balancing it on his nose for good measure before bouncing it a little and flipping backwards to slap it with his tail. The ice ball hit gardevoir in the head, knocking it backwards and onto the stage on its back.

"Gardevoir is unable to battle, spheal wins! The victory goes to Brittany from Vermilion City, who will now be going to the semifinals!"

Brittany looked up at Mikey. "We might be friends, Mikey, but no one—and I mean _no one_ —talks about my spheal like that. Got it?" She then got onto one knee and picked the ball pokémon up. "I'm so incredibly proud of you, buddy. You really proved yourself out there." Spheal smiled cheerfully before giving Mikey an evil smirk as he walked over.

"Look Brittany, I'm sorry. I was caught up in the moment, and I—"

"Mikey, don't worry about it. We're still friends. I just wanted to make a point to you." Brittany said, holding a finger up to his mouth. She then winked and walked into the backroom to join Lauren and the two other finalists.

"Wow, Brittany's kicking serious ass." JJ observed. Togepi, sitting in his lap, wholeheartedly agreed.

"Yeah. Plus, it looks like she put Mikey in his place there. We both know from experience not to get on Brittany's bad side."

"True that." JJ said, gulping down a soda. "True. That." He then nearly spat out his drink as he looked up at the monitor above him. He lightly punched Niko in the shoulder. "Look up there."

Marian stood in the center of the stage. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are now down to four contestants in the Grand Festival—Ryan, Kenny, Lauren, and Brittany. Here, now, are the semifinal matchups!" She then raised her hand towards the ceiling, where two pairs of profiles appeared, causing JJ to nearly spit out his drink, and cause Niko to gasp quietly. In the backroom, Brittany and Lauren were dead silent.

Brittany and Lauren would face each other in the first match of the semifinals.

The two girls then looked at each other, each with a smile. "Well, JJ was right, wasn't he?" Lauren said.

"I was right…" JJ said, in awe himself.

"Yeah, he was." Brittany said, standing up and holding her hand out. "Well? Let's go out there and give everyone a show, alright?"

Lauren nodded, taking Brittany's hand and standing up. "Let's go."

"And for our first semifinal match, we have Lauren from Canalave City, and Brittany from Vermilion City!" Marian announced. "These two talented coordinators are reportedly close friends, so this should be quite the matchup."

Brittany and Lauren stood on opposite ends of the stage, in their red sparkling dress and blue flower dress, respectively. They each withdrew two pokéballs, and the battle began.

"Infernape, lopunny, I choose you!" Lauren said, gracefully tossing each pokéball out.

"Blaziken, pikachu, you're up!" Brittany said, summoning her pokémon with a smiled. "Lauren, be ready for this! Pikachu, volt tackle! Blaziken, flamethrower!"

"Infernape, flame wheel! Lopunny, agility and thunderpunch!" Lauren shouted. "And I am ready, girl."

The four pokémon collided in the middle of the field, with flamethrower meeting flame wheel, and volt tackle meeting thunderpunch. For roughly a minute, the pokémon continued exchanging moves back and forth, neither wanting to give any ground. Likewise, the yellow bars for each coordinator hardly moved. One of them was going to have to make a big move, and quickly.

"Blaziken, blaze kick! Pikachu, dig!"

"Lopunny, bounce on blaziken. Infernape, mach punch on blaziken!" Lauren shouted, choosing to gang up on the blaze pokémon due to pikachu being hidden somewhere under the stage. Both pokémon leapt at blaziken, who, kicked infernape away and spun vertically to hit lopunny, who crumbled onto the ground, getting hit by pikachu's dig in the process.

"Blaziken, double kick on lopunny! Pikachu, thunderbolt blaziken's legs!" Brittany shouted, much to Lauren's—and the entire crowd's—surprise. Pikachu, without hesitation, unleashed a bolt of lightning aimed at blaziken, who kicked her foot up to act as a lightning rod and absorbed the electricity willingly before jumping and spinning at lopunny.

"Lopunny, jump kick!" Lauren shouted. The two then engaged in a kicking match, with blaziken eventually knocking lopunny to the floor. "Infernape, close combat on blaziken!"

"Pikachu, volt tackle on lopunny! Blaziken, double kick and blaze kick on infernape!" Brittany commanded. While the two fire types quickly became caught in a match of punches and kicks, pikachu charged forward in a wild burst of energy at lopunny, who also rushed forward, her hand surging with electricity. The two collided, fist meeting head as the two crashed into one another and immediately repelling away. Pikachu was launched backwards, rolling across the stage while lopunny simply fell to the ground like a rag doll, unable to move. "Pikachu, lopunny is paralyzed. Now's our chance! Blaziken, keep it up buddy! You can do this!" Brittany called out. "Volt tackle!"

"Lopunny, get up!" Lauren shouted desperately. "And keep it up, infernape! We can still win this! We can go to the finals!"

Once more, pikachu burst forward, electricity surging all around it in a wild manner as the electric mouse charged across the stage and crashed into lopunny, knocking the rabbit across the other end of the stage, sliding over the polished floor until it stopped at Lauren's feet, defeated. Moments later, pikachu also collapsed from exhaustion.

"Pikachu and lopunny are both unable to battle!" Marian declared. "Which only leaves infernape and blaziken! Battle of the fire pokémon!"

While pikachu was engaging lopunny, blaziken and infernape were locked in physical combat, each exchanging blows on one another. As they threw and took each punch or kick, it quickly became apparent that they were dancing, in an odd sort of way. Eventually infernape landed a mach punch that blaziken didn't expect, and knocked the large chicken pokémon backwards several yards. Blaziken fell to one knee while infernape stood tall.

"This might be it, Brittany." Lauren said, looking almost sad. "I'm really enjoying this battle."

Brittany smiled back in the sincerest way she knew how. "Same here. I'm glad we're friends. And I'm glad that we've gotten to travel together." Then, all of the sudden, a red aura appeared around both infernape and blaziken. "This is…blaze…" Brittany said, recognizing it from Fay's charizard and Niko's feraligatr. "Lauren! It's infernape's ability!"

Lauren nodded. And, as if they were both knew what the other was thinking, they both shouted out.

"Blaziken!"

"Infernape!"

"Flare blitz!"

Infernape and blaziken lit up on fire, and they charged at one another with blinding speed, ultimately colliding in the middle of the field. A sphere of fire erupted around them, as if protecting them from outside influence.

The two pokémon stared at each other for a few seemingly long moments. Then, nodding to each other, they gave their last bit of energy and ended the attacks, repelling one another from the force of the dual flare blitz.

Infernape and blaziken rolled backwards across the field before landing on their chests. Slowly, each one began to get back up, nearly standing straight before the flame pokémon collapsed, face forward, back onto the stage. Likewise, Lauren yellow bar completely depleted.

"Infernape is unable to battle, blaziken wins! The victory goes to Brittany from Vermilion City, who will now advance on to the final round!" Marian shouted.

Brittany ran over to blaziken, trying to catch her as she began to fall backwards. "You did it. I can't express how proud I am of you. We did it! We're going to the finals, and it's because of your hard work." She said, tears in her eyes. Looking up, she noticed Lauren with infernape in her lap as well, talking with it. They both exchanged looks before returning their pokémon and walking into the backroom.

Nothing more was said between the two. They both knew that words could be exchanged at a later time. Now, however, Brittany had one more match.

Back in the stands, Niko and JJ's jaws were on the floor, with togepi cheering happily. They sat there in shock until Lauren hugged Niko from his right side, sitting down in an empty seat next to him.

"Hey…" He said, leaning over and kissing her. "That battle…I have no words, Lauren."

Lauren smiled warmly. "Neither do I, as a matter of fact."

The following battle between Ryan and Kenny paled in comparison to their predecessor. But ultimately, it was Ryan who pulled out the win, leaving Brittany as his only opponent.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen…" Marian announced with flair in her tone. "We have come to the end of our Grand Festival journey! In one corner…" She threw her hand to her right. "We have Ryan from Five Island in the Sevii Islands." She then threw a hand to her left. "And here we have Brittany from Vermilion City!"

The crowd erupted in cheering as Brittany and Ryan took the stage. Ryan then pulled out two pokéballs from each of his pockets and threw them onto the stage.

"Alakazam, dusknoir, you're up!"

"Wartortle, tangrowth, let's go!" Brittany called out. "This is the finals, guys. Let's do this. Wartortle, skull bash onto alakazam! Tangrowth, vine whip on dusknoir!" She commanded in an unusually calm tone.

"Dusknoir, shadow ball on wartortle! Alakazam, focus blast on wartortle." Ryan said, lowering his eyes a little, quickly studying the movements of Brittany's pokémon. Before dusknoir could get a shadow ball off, tangrowth launched a series of green vines from his elongated arms and tying dusknoir's two shadowy hands. However, dusknoir opened up the mouth on its torso and launched out the shadow ball from there, combining with the focus blast to halt wartortle in his tracks. The turtle pokémon collapsed onto the ground.

Brittany grit her teeth in frustration. Those two were fast, to be sure. She just had to prove that she could take a hit. "Tangrowth, ancientpower! Wartortle, water pulse!"

Feeling like he understood Brittany's plan, tangrowth summoned a series of ancient rocks from thin air and surrounded wartortle with them while the water type conjured a series of water pulses to launch at their opponents.

"Alakazam, psychic on wartortle." Ryan said, again quietly. "Dusknoir, fire punch on tangrowth!"

"Tangrowth, launch the ancientpower! Wartortle, use rapid spin!" Dusknoir vanished underneath the ground, to which tangrowth replied by bringing the ancientpower closer to his body. As soon as he saw dusknoir appear to his right, the vine pokémon pummeled the ghost pokémon with the rocks, knocking it backwards in a daze. "Now, stun spore!"

"Dusknoir, fire punch the spores! Alakazam, what are you doing!? Use psychic!" Ryan shouted, seemingly frustrated. However, somehow, wartortle's rapid spin was preventing the all-powerful alakazam from doing much. "Fine, use shock wave!"

"Wartortle, skull bash! Fight through the electricity!" Brittany shouted. "You can do it, wartortle! I believe in you!"

The turtle pokémon dropped out of his spin and into his shell, where he launched off of the stage floor towards alakazam, and was quickly met with a wave of electricity flying at him. Remembering Brittany's words, the turtle fought through…

 _"_ _Don't give in, squirtle. We can handle this…" Brittany said with confidence. He felt a powerful kick to his torso, launching him several feet behind his trainer. As snorlax prepared its hyperbeam on Brittany, she made an attempt to dodge. But before she could, squirtle felt a powerful light energizing him, giving him the strength to defend his trainer. His best friend…_

Wartortle felt his shell bang against alakazam's thin torso. Popping out, he looked up at the psi pokémon, who looked oddly familiar to one of his old friends. No! Now was not the time to think about friends, except for Brittany and tangrowth. His two closest friends…

"Wartortle, aqua tail!" Brittany shouted. Wartortle's swirling tail now began to glow a solid blue color as he flipped around and slapped alakazam in the face, causing it to reel momentarily before attempting another shock wave. This time, wartortle beat him to the punch, using rapid spin up close. "Aqua tail again!" Wartortle's tail glowed once more while he was spinning around, slapping alakazam multiple times with the dual attack. Eventually, alakazam fell backwards from the force of the two attacks. "WATER PULSE!"

Meanwhile, tangrowth and dusknoir continued to fight it out, with the paralysis quickly wearing off of the gripper pokémon and allowing it to attack once more. Tangrowth often found itself with the upper hand, but dusknoir easily came back with a couple sly fire punches.

"Dusknoir, will-o-wisp!" Ryan shouted. The gripper pokémon rose into the air, summoning a series of blue balls of fire around him. Simultaneously, he launched all of them at tangrowth, immediately setting the vine pokémon on fire…

 _"_ _Congrats, Brittany!"_

 _"_ _Now, only one more left!"_

 _"_ _Yeah, all thanks to tangela here," Brittany said, looking down at the vine pokémon standing beside her as she held pichu. "Couldn't have done it without you."_

 _Tangela looked up at Brittany, still high on the joyful feeling it had earlier. He felt, maybe for the first time, like he really accomplished something, and wanted to ride that feeling as long as he could. Which caused the vine pokémon to break out into a run, which looked more like a fast-paced waddle, down the street as the sun began to set. In that moment, side-by-side with the trainer who wanted to be his friend, he truly felt happy. He felt strong…_

"TANNNN!" Tangrowth bellowed out, launching his two long arms through the fire coating him; burning him. Both arms extended across the field to dusknoir, grabbing the gripper pokémon and throwing it into the ground. Then tangrowth began to slap dusknoir incessantly, without mercy.

Just as wartortle launched a final water pulse to alakazam, tangrowth finished slapping dusknoir, and the two pokémon fainted simultaneously. Brittany looked up at the monitor above. While she seemed to excel a little in style, it was certainly better than Ryan, whose bar was nearly depleted just before his pokémon fainted.

"Alakazam and dusknoir are both unable to battle. Which means…the victor—and the winner of the Grand Festival—is BRITTANY FROM VERMILION CITY!"

While the crowd erupted in cheers, Brittany herself stood stone cold before dropping to her knees, stunned by the result of the match. Then, her two pokémon—her first ever, and the first that she caught—both ran over to her, also unable to grasp the weight of the moment. Looking up at tangrowth, and then directly at wartortle, Brittany began crying tears of joy. She stood back up and hugged tangrowth while holding wartortle by her side. After a minute, she turned to the crowd and waved with tangrowth and wartortle.

She didn't return her pokémon. Instead, she watched as Ryan walked up to congratulate her before leaving space for Marian.

"Brittany…wow…" She said in amazement. "I'm at a loss for words. I remember your first contest here in Sinnoh. You didn't even make it to the Battle Round there, in Jubilife. And here you are, standing here as Sinnoh's Top Coordinator." She held a massive golden goblet adorned with a blue gem hanging from one end and a shiny red metallic ribbon emblazoned just under the rim. Brittany took it, instead handing it to wartortle. Picking up the turtle pokémon, he let one hand off of the cup and let tangrowth hold the other. The two then simultaneously raised it in victory for the entire Contest Hall to see.

"Wow…great job, kid." Madeleine said from a Pokémon Center in a distant land. "Well-deserved."

"BRITTANY! BRITTANY DID IT!" Ian shouted at the monitor, his newly evolved garchomp yelling as well.

"Honey…our baby girl, she did it." Brittany's mom said, holding her husband as they watched from their home in Vermilion City, crying hysterically in happiness.

Fay—sitting at his desk in Oak's laboratory, simply smiled. "I knew she could do it."

Without thinking, Lauren jumped out of her seat and ran back down towards the stage. With a slight hesitation, Niko and JJ began running after her. Eventually, they made it into the backroom and then onto the stage, where Brittany turned and, letting tangrowth hold wartortle in his extended arms, ran over to her friends, engaging in a group hug.

"You did it, Brittany!" JJ said. Togepi shouted as well.

"I always believed in you." Lauren said, tightly hugging her friend and former rival.

Niko was last, putting his hands on Brittany's shoulders. "I'm so, _so_ proud of you and everything you've accomplished. You've earned this." He then embraced her tightly, a tear running down his eye, too.

* * *

Later that night, after the post-festival party held at Hotel Grand Lake, Brittany found herself alone in the courtyard in front of the hotel. She gazed up at the night sky, each star twinkling individually. She then heard footsteps behind her. Turning around, she saw Lauren.

"Hey there, champ." She said, walking up towards the brunette.

"Hey. What's up?" Brittany asked, pulling a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Oh, nothing. You shouldn't be alone tonight. This is your night, 'Top Coordinator.'" Lauren said, with a regal emphasis on her friend's new title.

"I'm really proud of myself." Brittany said quietly. "Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined actually winning all of this." She paused for a moment, shuffling her bare feet in the grass below. "I never intended on even being a coordinator. Hell, I didn't know that they existed! But JJ…he introduced me to them, and helped me through them. I placed top 8 in Hoenn, and wanted to come to Sinnoh to do better.

"And then that first Jubilife contest was a disaster. And I felt ashamed of myself. A quarterfinalist not even making it past the Appeal Round? I—eheh—felt intimidated by you at first, since you ended up winning that contest."

"Well, here you are. You beat me." Lauren said, an eyebrow raised. "You really are the better coordinator, Brittany. You have a passion for it that I don't. And it showed today. Also…I think it's funny how you think I was so scary or terrifying, and now here we are."

"To be fair, you and Niko didn't have it easy at first, either." Brittany said in a teasing tone.

"Not at all. I guess this journey really has changed us for the better." She then took a couple of steps and hugging Brittany again.

"Yeah, it really has, hasn't it?" Brittany said, returning the hug. After letting go of one another, they continued to look up at the stars for a few minutes before Niko and JJ found them. Reunited once more, the four all stood there in the grassy courtyard, enjoying one another's company.

* * *

 **Author's Note: So there ya have it! Brittany's the Top Coordinator in Sinnoh! I tried to make this moment as emotionally charged as I could, even borrowing from moments in episodes past to do it. I'd like to think that I did well in this regard, but please let me know what you think! Now, we turn our attention back to the gym challenge as Niko and Lauren vie for their final gym badge in Sunyshore City! Enjoy!**


	48. A lesson in zen

**Episode 48: A lesson in zen**

"Prinplup, metal claw! Cranidos, try to dodge!" Niko directed as he watched his two pokémon duke it out on the beach. The penguin pokémon burst forward, claws glowing bright gray as he attempted to slash at the headbutt pokémon. Fortunately, cranidos managed to evade the first iteration of metal claw, but in his initial excitement didn't react fast enough to prinplup's sharp claws lightly slashing across him. Upon impact cranidos fell backwards into the sand. Sighing, Niko walked over to the little dinosaur and pat him on his shiny red head.

In the aftermath of Brittany's win at the Grand Festival, the group stuck around Lake Valor, since as Top Coordinator Brittany had to conduct interviews and meet with other past winners, from Sinnoh and abroad. For the few days that they were there, she would come back to Hotel Grand Lake mentally and physically exhausted, refusing to talk much with anyone. As a fellow introvert, Brittany's social battery was constantly being depleted.

"I just want this to be over!" She said as she lay down on her bed. "I don't want to talk to other people anymore! Ugh!" She said before quieting down for the rest of the night.

After leaving Lake Valor, the group continued eastwards towards Sunyshore City, where Niko and Lauren would compete for their final gym badge in Sinnoh. It was perfect timing, as a matter of fact: The Pokémon League was in two weeks, and so as winter quickly turned to spring they travelled along route 222, which consisted primarily of beach. According to JJ, the trek would only take a couple of days, but Niko and Lauren wanted to spend a lot of that time training for what would likely be the most difficult gym for both of them.

It was then that Niko decided he needed to continue training cranidos, as he intended to use the headbutt pokémon in the Pokémon League. It wasn't that cranidos wasn't excited—he was the most enthusiastic pokémon on Niko's team. The problem was he wasn't as battle-hardened as the other four. And he decided to spend most of his time having his pokémon compete against one another. This tactic worked most of the time, and he was feeling proud of it.

Lauren, on the other hand, was feeling more confident about her battling skills then ever. Even though she lost to Brittany in the Grand Festival, she was very proud of her placement—top 4—and even more proud of her pokémon for giving it their best. As far as moves were concerned, she didn't have much more to teach them. Rather, she wanted them to focus on speed and evasion, which Fay's old tactic of jumping left and right helped with.

There was one problem she was facing: she wanted to catch a sixth pokémon. While there are no rules against not having a full team, it is highly recommended, since most trainers will show up to the Pokémon League with one. Niko—who had plenty of reserve pokémon back in Kanto—didn't have this kind of problem, and told Lauren that, if worse came to worse, she could borrow one of his provided, of course, that the pokémon was willing. Niko was confident that they would be.

Despite this offer, though, Lauren wanted to catch one of her own. And so during their journey towards Sunyshore City, she was keeping an eye out for any wild pokémon. She and JJ even checked the pokédex to look up local pokémon, but none of them seemed interesting enough to Lauren.

"It's alright, cranidos. We'll get it next time." Niko said, helping the rock type back onto his feet. Cranidos looked down in shame, wanting nothing more than to please his trainer. Out of anger, he ran towards prinplup with a headbutt. Niko, however, briefly noticed a blue spark strike across cranidos' shiny red head. "Cranidos! Stop that!" Niko said as prinplup halted the dinosaur with his claws. "Look, buddy, I know you're upset. But let's just try again tomorrow, alright?"

Cranidos nodded, turning around and walking back to the camp, where JJ had just made some rawst berry poffins—cranidos' favorite. He sat down next to torterra and luxray, who had just woken up from a nap and were getting ready to start training with Niko. So as they got up, JJ's shroomish and growlithe replaced them and sat with cranidos instead.

"Cranidos really enjoys travelling, doesn't he?" JJ remarked to Niko as he trudged through the sand with umbreon at his side.

"Can you blame him, though? He was revived from a rock. He never had a home. Or at least, not one that he could remember…" Niko replied, wondering if cranidos had any memory of life before he was fossilized. "He also loves battling."

"That's because he's still very young. Only a couple of months old. He has a lot of energy. And since you're basically his parent, he looks up to you a lot, and wants to be his very best around you."

Niko nodded. This certainly wasn't the first time his pokémon admired him like a child would for their parent. Magnemite, aron, and snorunt all did when they were first caught, and even after they evolved. Of course, magnemite was the only one that seemed remotely infantile, but regardless, their mannerisms were similar to cranidos' in some ways, minus the excessive energy.

He then turned to torterra and luxray, who were both ready to do some training. Luxray was easy—Niko wanted him to work specifically on his release for discharge. Torterra, however, was more challenging. Since his evolution at Spear Pillar, torterra has had more difficulty moving around. He got significantly larger and heavier, which was more of an adjustment than either he or Niko had expected. With that said, Niko took the new challenge with pride, trying to convince torterra that this evolution would make him stronger, as he would be a more defensive pokémon with long-range moves.

One of these moves was earthquake which, for obvious reasons, Niko chose not to practice, instead saving that for the Sunyshore Gym and the Pokémon League. Instead, he wanted to work on improving torterra's bite move and making it more like a "crunch" move. This didn't seem too hard, as the continent pokémon's jaw got much stronger with evolution. The challenge here was it was _too_ strong. One time, torterra and cranidos were practicing against one another. After dodging an energy ball, cranidos went in for a headbutt. Torterra took the opportunity to try using crunch, and he succeeded. Cranidos yelped out in pain—which, given how _hard_ cranidos' head was, is impressive—and ran over to Niko. After the practice battle, cranidos was indicating that he had a headache from torterra's attack.

"Alright, torterra. When we use crunch, don't go _that_ hard this time, alright?" Niko asked, turning to prinplup, who volunteered to help his teammate practice. "Prinplup, use metal claw!"

The two pokémon kept at this for some time. Meanwhile, Lauren was off several yards away training with glaceon and lopunny. The rabbit pokémon was trying to learn hi jump kick—a move it doesn't naturally learn—with limited success. Glaceon, on the other hand, was simply practicing the moves that she already knew. As a still relatively new pokémon to battling, both she and Lauren wanted to see some improvement. And during their trek to Sunyshore, they began to see results.

* * *

It was evening on the beach, and most of the group and their pokémon had gone to bed. The only ones up were Niko, Lauren, cranidos, and Brittany's pikachu, who was simply enjoying looked at the bright moon above. The couple was sitting on a towel, watching the waves ebb and flow while cranidos was running around, dodging imaginary attacks left and right.

"All of your pokémon seem to have one thing in common," Lauren finally said.

"What's that?"

"Determination to do better."

Niko chuckled. "Yeah, I suppose so. The exception was my numel, who didn't want to do much of anything. But he's an incredible fighter."

Lauren turned to her boyfriend and smiled. "That's because he's smug, probably. He knows he's strong, so he doesn't have to train." Niko nodded again. "Will I get to meet all of your pokémon one day?"

"Oh, of course you will! And they'll love you. Actually, I want to use some of them at the Pokémon League this time. Obviously, I don't plan on catching any more pokémon—unless one just seemed like a good match for me—so I will probably have to use my others. But some of them haven't gotten a chance to battle competitively in a couple of years. But of course you can meet them." Niko turned to Lauren and smiled, the moonlight shining on opposite sides of their face.

"That reminds me…" Lauren said. "I should be looking for another pokémon."

"You'll find one. I know you will." Niko said, placing his hand on her leg. They looked at each other for a few more moments before locking lips.

Meanwhile, cranidos continued running around. Occasionally while he was practicing his evasion abilities, he felt the top of his head spark with energy. Whenever it happened, he felt calm, as if he were meditating (Niko had mentioned meditation before, but cranidos had no idea what it was, only that it was a way to calm down). Eventually he lost track of where he was. Looking around, he couldn't find Niko or the camp anywhere. Puzzled, he started walking back in the direction he came from.

That's when he saw something quite unusual.

Sitting on a rock out in the water—maybe ten feet out—was a rather tall pokémon with a gray shell on its head. Cranidos curiously eyed the strange pokémon, noticing its shiny pink skin and a spiny ruff with alternating red and white stripes. The shell was gray with two horns, one on each side, and a red gem in the center. The entire time, it was casually observing the small dinosaur.

"Crani?" Cranidos asked. The strange pokémon leapt off of its rock and waded through the water onto the beach. After approaching cranidos with its single-digit hands behind its back, it reached up and pointed at the shell on its head.

Suddenly, to cranidos' surprise, the shell began to glow a bright, light blue color. The pokémon then lowered its head and charged forward. Cranidos, out of habit, leapt to the right to successfully evade. The pokémon then stopped its assault, raising its head back up and turning back towards cranidos. For a moment, the two stared each other down.

The pokémon then moved towards cranidos, who attempted to run away before feeling a pink hand touch its head. The pokémon then pointed to cranidos' head, and then its own, causing it to glow once more.

Suddenly, cranidos seemed to understand. The strange pokémon was trying to _teach_ it something. Then the headbutt pokémon remembered feeling a brief rush of energy to his head, and tried to calm down momentarily, lowering his heart rate and breathing. Moments later, he began to feel the rush of energy once more. He looked up at the strange pokémon, who nodded approvingly.

"Cranidos! Cranidos!?" Niko's voice said in the distance. Cranidos turned his head to the right to see his trainer and Lauren walking around with flashlights and Brittany's pikachu, who was lighting up the area around them as well. "Hey! There you are!" Niko said, breaking into a run. Cranidos did the same, and in no time the two were reunited. "Buddy, don't go off running away like that. I know, you're excited about getting stronger and faster, but next time, stay close to me, alright?"

Cranidos nodded before calming himself down again, trying to replicate the move he just learned. When he felt himself succeeding, he opened his eyes to see Niko looking at him with surprise. Cranidos also noticed his face was colored a light blue from the glow.

"What's this move?" Niko asked, turning to Lauren, only to find his girlfriend eying the strange pokémon.

"More like, what's this pokémon?" Lauren asked curiously. She pulled out her pokédex:

" _Slowking, the royal pokémon. Water and psychic type. Being bitten by shellder gave it intelligence comparable to that of award-winning scientists_."

"WOW." Lauren said, thoroughly impressed. "Niko…I found it. I found the pokémon that I want to catch."

Niko tilted his head. "You barely know anything about it, though!" Niko said.

"So? I have a feeling about it. Haven't you had that before?"

"Well…" Niko said, thinking about it. He, in fact, had, and then nodded. "Alright then, go for it."

Lauren was about to ask pikachu if she wouldn't mind battling the slowking, until the royal pokémon shook its head. "Wait, why not?"

Slowking didn't respond, instead turning away and walking off. It didn't even give a parting glance to cranidos, who tried to run after it, only to feel a sudden throbbing in his head, which forced him to halt his advances.

* * *

The following morning, Niko and Lauren explained the events of the previous night to Brittany and JJ. Both were curious by slowking's behavior, but after doing some research, JJ found that the move cranidos had learned was zen headbutt.

"From the looks of it, that must've been what slowking was doing with cranidos. Teaching it zen headbutt. Is that correct, buddy?" Niko asked. Cranidos nodded happily. "Well, guess we should keep going, then." He said, throwing his bag around his shoulders and beginning to walk off. When he realized he was the only one, Niko turned back around to see Lauren looking in the opposite direction. "What's up, Lauren?"

"I think I see slowking walking towards us…" She said.

She was right: slowking was indeed approaching them at a casual pace. Eventually, it broke into a run, with its shell glowing bright blue and its hands still behind its back. It was also running directly for Lauren, who quickly dove to the right and summoned lopunny.

"Lopunny, agility and thunderpunch!" She commanded, standing back up and shaking the dirt off of her clothes. The rabbit pokémon obliged, darting forward and slamming its fist into slowking's shell, knocking the royal pokémon to the ground. Without hesitation, slowking then lurched its head towards lopunny, slamming the left horn into the normal type and knocking her backwards. Slowking then, using its red gem, conjured a water pulse and shot it at lopunny's face: a direct hit. "Thunderpunch again!"

Lopunny lobbed another electrified fist at slowking, who retaliated with zen headbutt, driving its shell into lopunny's fist and, with incredible strength, driving the rabbit pokémon backwards through the sand.

"High jump kick!" She commanded, thrusting her hand into the air. Lopunny ended her attack before ducking to the left to dodge slowking. She then jumped into the air and brought her right foot down on slowking's back, knocking the royal pokémon forward towards Lauren. Energized, the blue-haired trainer opened up an empty pokéball and tossed it at slowking. The royal pokémon began to glow red before transferring into the pokéball. The red and white ball fell to the ground and wiggled a few times before ultimately clicking.

Lauren bent down and picked up the ball, lopunny standing by her side. "Looks like you did catch it." Niko said with a wink.

She looked up and smiled at her boyfriend. "I think it wanted me to catch it. Otherwise it wouldn't have found us." Lauren then opened up the pokéball, sending out her newly caught slowking. The royal pokémon towered over her, but looked down with a friendly smile all the same. "Welcome to the team. My name is Lauren. And I'm trying to win all eight Sinnoh gym badges. Are you with me?"

Slowking nodded in a sagely manner before smiling down at its new trainer.


	49. The fire type specialist

**Episode 49: The fire type specialist**

Niko enjoyed Sunyshore City. A lot. The city rests on the southeastern edge of the entire Sinnoh region and, while being a major port town, is also one of the only main routes to get to the Pokémon League from. However, that's not why Niko enjoyed it.

The city is entirely powered by solar panels.

Every street, house, and building have solar panels installed on them. Niko thought the technology was incredible, and constantly made it known. At least, enough to annoy his friends, who all began walking at a quicker pace in order to separate themselves from him.

After resting up in the Pokémon Center, Niko and Lauren decided to go out onto the practice battlefield for a bit to train. "So Niko, when do you want to go challenge the gym leader?" She asked, walking backwards and facing her boyfriend.

Niko shrugged. "Well, we should probably do it soon. The Pokémon League begins in a week or so, right?" Lauren nodded. "Then how about tomorrow?"

She smiled. "Alright, got it. Hey, there's a lighthouse here. Want to check that out later?"

"Of course! Why not?" Niko said, again eliciting a smile from Lauren. He then turned his attention to his pokémon, sending them all out in turn. "Alright guys, we're going to be challenging the last Sinnoh gym leader tomorrow. Who's ready!?" Torterra, prinplup, luxray, staraptor, and cranidos all cheered. "Great! So, before we challenge him or her, we should get some final training in." Niko then went to work with each of his pokémon in turn, starting with torterra and finishing with cranidos. For some, it was mastering their current moves. For others, it was learning new ones. This was clear with staraptor, who was trying to learn close combat. Often during the training, he would move over to Lauren's camp and practice with infernape, who understood the move quite well.

The training took a couple of hours, and Lauren was working alongside him. With her full team, she worked with each one in turn, honing their moves and making sure that they were all ready for the gym leader.

Lauren also noticed that slowking was getting along with the rest of the team better than she had expected. Knowing that slowkings are exceptionally smart pokémon, she blindly assumed that it would be somewhat conceited. This was quickly proven to not be the case, when the royal pokémon assisted glaceon in using icy wind by throwing a water pulse into it, which burst and strengthened the cold gale. It also seemed to get along well with haunter, who would often joke around, which slowking seemed to appreciate a lot, and understood the gas pokémon's humor better than anyone else in their group.

Slowking also got along well with the other pokémon. He once tried playing a game of "catch" with a water pulse. Prinplup was on the other end, and they would toss it back and forth. At one point, togepi joined in and tried to catch the water pulse, only to end up causing it to burst right in her face, splashing water everywhere.

After training, the two went back into the Pokémon Center to change before heading off to the lighthouse. On their way, they ran into Brittany and JJ.

"Where have you two been?" Niko asked, puzzled.

"The Sunyshore Market!" Brittany said excitedly, pulling a bag off of her shoulder and showing the couple a variety of produce. "It's so great! JJ is going to use some of it to make poffins. Apparently, there's a poffin machine in this center, so we're going to make a bunch for the road ahead!"

"Yeah, we got most of this for a good deal, too." JJ said cheerfully. "Togepi also liked meeting the people who run the stands, and she got to see a bunch of new pokémon along the way" Togepi cooed loudly, standing by JJ's side happily. "Where are you two headed?"

"Off to the lighthouse!" Niko said, throwing his arm around Lauren. "We just trained for a little bit, and now off to relax."

"Cool, I've heard it's great at sunset." JJ replied. "Anyways, have fun!"

Niko and Lauren thanked the two before walking out of the Pokémon Center and towards the Vista Lighthouse. The trip didn't take too long, and by the time they reached the top of the lighthouse, the sun was setting, bathing the west in a radiant orange glow.

"You know, when we first began our journey we would always be so excited to see the ocean." Niko said as they sat down on a bench at the top of the lighthouse. He was trying to hide a smile. "And every time I get to see the sunset like this I have the same feeling, even though I see it every day."

"I'm glad that we get to see it together." Lauren said, leaning into Niko, her head resting against his shoulder.

A few more minutes passed as they watched the sunset in peace. Then Niko began to speak again. "Back when we were in the Distortion World…you said something to me about my…traits, or whatever. Remember that?"

"Yeah…" Lauren replied, looking down as if in shame. "I'm sorry about that. If I offended you, I—"

"It did hurt a little, yeah. But it was true. And I've kind of just been thinking about that more. I need to stop being arrogant, or emotionally unstable, or whatever else you said. It isn't healthy."

"No, it's not. You're totally correct." Lauren said, looking back up at Niko, the orange light pressing against his face and bending around his slightly elongated nose. "But…I should have talked more about the good things about you, not just the negative. And that's my fault, and I'm really sorry."

"Don't apologize. We all have negative parts to us. We all have some sort of dark side."

"What's mine, then?" Lauren asked.

Taken aback, Niko tried to think about it. If he was honest with himself, then he had no idea. After running in circles in his mind, he finally answered. "I don't know you well enough to say."

"What…?" Lauren asked. "But…Niko, I know you pretty well. How do you not know me that well?"

"I'm bad at reading people. Sorry." He admitted. "I mean, I guess you just…bah, I don't know."

"What!?" Lauren demanded. Niko was silent. "Tell me, Niko. I told you what I thought was wrong with you. You should do the same."

"Didn't I just answer you?" Niko replied in question. Lauren seemed stricken. "Exactly. I told you that I don't know. I need to get to know you better."

"You're a smart guy, Niko. You can do better than that." Lauren said in an offended tone. "How can I be a better person for you if you can't even tell me what I need to work on?"

Niko shook his head, frustrated now. "Listen, let's just forget about it and head back to the Pokémon Center. It's about time for dinner, anyways."

"Fine." Lauren said, huffing a little as she stood up. Niko lightly grasped her hand, and the two walked out of the Lighthouse and into the city.

When the two returned to the Pokémon Center, they found JJ and Brittany already sitting in a booth, apparently talking to a tall man with a red afro and a yellow shirt. Upon noticing the couple, Brittany waved her hand about to get their attention.

"Niko! Lauren! Come meet this guy!" Brittany shouted. The couple moved into the booth to greet the guy with the red afro. "This is Flint."

"Hey!" Flint said, thrusting out his hand. As soon as Niko made contact with it, he felt his arm wobbling from the force of the handshake. Lauren felt the same, almost as if he had dislocated her shoulder. "Brittany here's told me all about you two!"

"Oh?" Lauren said, almost blushing a little. "What'd she say?"

"You two want to take on Volkner and the Pokémon League." Flint said plainly. He shrugged. "She says you two are pretty impressive. Is that so?"

"Well, I wouldn't say…" Niko said, his voice drained out by his friends.

"Niko has competed in three Pokémon Leagues so far!" Lauren blurted out. Flint raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? Brittany didn't tell me that. How've you done in them?" He seemed pleasantly surprised.

"Err…top 32 in Kanto, and top 8 in Johto and Hoenn." Niko admitted.

"Not bad, not bad. Shows improvement. I know some trainers who remain stagnant in their abilities as a trainer. It's sad, really." Flint said, looking at the table. "And a lot of them end up giving up on their dreams if they don't see any improvement."

"What kind of dreams do they have?" Niko inquired.

"They all want to be a 'Pokémon Master,' whatever that means." Flint said, shrugging again. "Anyways, I'm actually a close friend of the gym leader around here, Volkner. We go _way_ back. If you're willing, I'd like to test you both in battle in order to see for myself if you're ready for him and the Pokémon League. How does that sound?"

"Really?" Niko asked. Flint nodded. "Then of course. When?"

"How does right now sound?" Flint said, standing up excitedly. "Battles get me FIRED UP!" He shouted with enthusiasm. Niko laughed a little, and got out of the booth with Lauren, while Brittany and JJ exited on the other. The four of them followed Flint out to the practice battlefield. Flint then got on to one end, with Niko moving to the other. "Oh, would you like to do one-on-one battles?" When neither Niko nor Lauren gave him an answer, Flint made the choice for them. "Double battle. You two versus me. Brittany mentioned that you both are a couple, so that'll make this more interesting." He then pulled out two pokéballs, smirking.

Lauren and Niko then stood, side by side, as they each pulled out a pokéball as well.

"Cranidos, let's go!"

"Slowking, I choose you!" Lauren shouted.

Flint nodded. "Interesting choices. Well then…infernape, magmortar, FIRE UP!" Flint shouted, throwing two pokéballs into the air. Out of one appeared the familiar fire monkey. Out of the other was a massive red and yellow pokémon in an egg shape. Instead of hands, it had small cannons. It had a large flame on its head and smaller ones on its shoulders.

" _Magmortar, the blast pokémon. Fire type. When launching 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit fireballs, its body takes on a whitish hue from the intense heat_." JJ's pokédex read.

"Slowking, water pulse on magmortar!" Lauren commanded.

"Cranidos, ancientpower!" Niko shouted. The headbutt pokémon cried out, summoning ancient fossils from the ground and throwing them at infernape and magmortar. The monkey punched each one, shattering them to pieces. Meanwhile, magmortar raised its right arm-cannon and responded to both the water pulse and ancientpower with a single jet of fire that repelled both attacks.

Niko and Lauren looked in amazement at the sheer power of Flint's pokémon. He certainly wasn't an ordinary trainer.

"Heh. My turn, then. Infernape, flare blitz. Magmortar, hyper beam."

Infernape charged forward, already knowing its target without Flint having to say anything. The monkey charged at cranidos, who prepared to use zen headbutt on Niko's command. The two collided in the center of the battlefield. Meanwhile, magmortar unleashed a powerful orange beam of energy at slowking, who attempted to dodge but got hit nonetheless. The royal pokémon fell to the ground, pained by the hyper beam.

"Slowking, get back up!" Lauren shouted. Slowking turned to his trainer and nodded, smirking a little. He then stood back up and lowered his own head. It began to glow a bright blue as he charged at magmortar.

"Magmortar, solarbeam!" Flint shouted. The blast pokémon raised its arm cannon once more and unleashed a green beam of energy at slowking's head. However, the royal pokémon didn't seem to stop, rather slow down briefly. He collided with magmortar, knocking the fire type backwards before unleashing a water pulse on Lauren's command.

Flint smirked. As soon as the water pulse was conjured, magmortar thrust its arm cannon towards it and unleashed a burst of electricity into it, causing it to explode in both pokémon's faces, repelling them back several yards.

Meanwhile, cranidos was trying to fend off infernape. Occasionally, he would try to look for slowking, but then he would take infernape's mach punch to the face, knocking him backwards.

"Cranidos, you can do this, buddy. Infernape is stronger, but you've got more moxie! Let's keep fighting until the end!" Niko shouted. "Cranidos, let's go!"

The little dinosaur's head burst into a bright blue color before he charged directly at infernape, who retaliated with a flare blitz. The two met in the middle of the field and immediately shot backwards from the force of the attacks. Upon landing, cranidos immediately got back up and tried again, only to meet infernape's fist this time, which halted the dinosaur in its tracks.

"Magmortar, use thunderbolt again!" Flint shouted.

"Slowking, try to evade!" Lauren said. Niko turned to his girlfriend, realizing how anxious she looked. This battle wasn't going as well as she had wanted it to. He felt the same—there was no way Flint's some ordinary trainer. He's something else.

"Cranidos, block the thunderbolt with ancientpower!" Niko shouted, thrusting his hand forward energetically. Cranidos nodded, breaking free of infernape and turning to slowking, summoning a cluster of rocks to protect his teammate. The thunderbolt collided and shattered the rocks, giving slowking enough time to escape. However, infernape lurched forward and slammed its fist into cranidos' side, launching the dinosaur across the field.

"Infernape, thunderpunch slowking!" Flint commanded. The monkey's right fist began to surge with electricity as he burst forward and slammed it against slowking's face, knocking the royal pokémon out.

"Slowking is unable to battle, infernape and magmortar win!" JJ, who was refereeing, declared.

Lauren returned slowking, only to re-summon him on the sidelines where she now stood. She gave Niko a saddened look, as if she felt more than defeated. Niko replied with a hardened look, and then turned to Flint, his two pokémon, and cranidos.

"Can you keep going, buddy?" Niko asked. Cranidos slowly got back up, but nodded while staring down his two foes. "Alright then."

"Magmortar, flamethrower!" Flint shouted. However, shockingly enough, cranidos matched the attack.

Out of nowhere, a jet of fire burst from cranidos' mouth as well. The little dinosaur was using his own version of flamethrower!

"Wha…how…?" Niko asked in confusion. " _How_ did you learn that!?"

"Cranidos watched blaziken and infernape use fire moves before." Brittany replied from the sidelines. "He always seemed amazed by it, and I guess he finally felt like giving it a try."

Niko nodded. "Alright cranidos, keep up the flamethrower!"

Cranidos attempted to, but it was too much energy, and the headbutt pokémon broke the attack, breathing heavily as a result. It then looked up at magmortar, who was about to use another attack, and infernape, who was jumping back and forth to keep in motion.

"Zen headbutt on infernape!"

"Infernape, mach punch! Magmortar, hyper beam!" Flint shouted. Before charging at infernape, cranidos turned to slowking. The royal pokémon simply nodded, as if it could read the dinosaur's mind. Cranidos smiled briefly before charging at his opponent, his head sparking bright blue. Then, as soon as he crashed into the fire monkey, his entire body began to glow and grow.

At full height, cranidos' evolution was about as tall as Lauren, but initially it was hunched over to meet infernape's fist. In all, it looked a lot like cranidos, only far larger and thicker. It has a dome-shaped head that obstructs its eyes. The dome is same color as cranidos'—bright red. There are a variety of spikes along the dome—two large spikes jutting out from the side, and four smaller ones circling around the dome and pointing upwards. It has red stripes, one on its tail and one on each of its kneecaps, as well as spikes on its knees and two on its collar.

" _Rampardos, the head butt pokémon. Rock type. If two were to smash their heads together, their foot-thick skulls would keep them from fainting_."

Niko looked up with pride. However, shortly after evolving, rampardos was hit in the side by magmortar's hyper beam, which flung the heavy dinosaur a few feet and to the ground. "Rampardos!" Niko shouted. "You can do this, buddy! Get up!"

Rampardos struggled to get back up. Once it tried to stand up in full, it fell forward this time, crashing in the center of the battlefield.

"Rampardos is unable to battle! Infernape and magmortar win! The victory goes to Flint of the Elite 4!" JJ declared.

"Elite 4!?" Niko and Lauren both shouted.

"Indeed." Flint said, approaching the two trainers—and their two pokémon—with his own. "I am a member of Sinnoh's Elite 4 and, as you can see, a fire type specialist."

"But…why didn't you tell us that?" Niko asked curiously.

"Oh, no reason. Thought it'd be interesting to have a battle where there were no expectations of doing well. And it was clear that neither of you knew who I was, because if you did one of you was bound to mention it. I only told JJ and Brittany."

Niko looked to his friends with a bemused look. JJ shrugged his shoulders.

"Anyways, that was a good battle. You're right, Niko: that rampardos of yours does have moxie. I like that. I think with a pokémon like that, you could go all the way."

"You think so…?" Niko asked, turning to rampardos. Flint simply nodded in response.

"But I feel like you and Lauren should be working more in sync. Just taking a pokémon each and bluntly attacking each one isn't going to work, especially if you're at a disadvantage. Type-wise, you certainly weren't, but you were in terms of skill."

Niko nodded, taking all of it in. A lot happened in the previous few minutes. Cranidos evolved _and_ learned a new move, especially one that he had no idea the dinosaur could learn. And he knew Flint was right—him and Lauren weren't working well enough. It reminded him of the first time he was in an official double battle alongside JJ. The two hardly got along that day, and didn't do very well as a result. The same happened earlier with Lauren, when they got into their first real argument.

"Thanks for the advice, Flint. I've heard it before, but I guess I just forgot to apply it."

"No problem, Niko. And hey, if it's any consolation, you both did do well. I think Volkner should be scared of you two." He then turned to look around—during the battle, they had attracted a small crowd. "Speaking of which, would you mind if I sat in on your battles tomorrow? I'd like to see Volkner again, as well as how much better he's gotten since our last encounter."

"That's totally okay with me!" Niko replied.

"Yeah, I'd like that." Lauren said, albeit a little quieter. Flint grinned widely.

"Great! See ya both tomorrow!" He shouted, turning around and walking away, greeting other trainers as he exited the battlefield.

Later that evening, Niko was laying down with Lauren in their bed in the Pokémon Center. "How are you feeling now?" He asked. Niko wanted to know that, after their small argument and their joint defeat against Flint, that his girlfriend was still alright.

"Better."

"Do you want to talk about anything?" He whispered.

"I feel inadequate." Lauren whispered back. "We both had the advantage and lost badly. I wish I could have done better with slowking. I feel like I failed him."

"Oh, please. You didn't. We fought an Elite 4 member! How often do we get that chance? And even he said we were good. Lauren," Niko then turned to face her. "you're going to be just fine. You just have to keep practicing with slowking and the others, and you'll beat Volkner and go far with me in the Pokémon League." He then kissed her.

"Thanks. I also feel bad about our argument." When Niko raised an eyebrow, she elaborated. "I overreacted. We still don't know everything about each other, and I shouldn't hold it against you. That was unfair of me, and I'm sorry."

Niko smiled warmly before responding. "And I should pay closer attention to you. I'll try to in the future. Promise."

They then kissed again and fell to sleep, resting before their final gym battle the following morning.

* * *

 **Author's note: I know, a lot going on here. To be honest, I wanted cranidos-now rampardos-to learn flamethrower. It seemed like a move it should naturally learn. I also wanted to evolve the little guy, too. And a battle against Flint seemed like the best choice. Lastly, the argument between Niko and Lauren kind of came out of nowhere, but i'm trying to show weaknesses in their relationship, or even just small cracks, since no relationship is without arguments or fighting. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed all the same!**


	50. Static shock!

**Episode 50: Static shock!**

The following morning went by like usual—Niko woke up first, got ready for the day, and walked out with JJ to the Pokémon Center lobby to talk and wait for Brittany and Lauren. With some exceptions, Niko was usually the first up and ready to go. Sometimes he would wake up with Brittany, but most times it was JJ. He would allow his pokémon to sit around in their room for a bit while he got ready, and then returned them to their pokéballs.

This morning was no different, but the girls were up and ready relatively quickly since it was a special day. That day, Niko and Lauren would compete for their final Sinnoh gym badge. As soon as the whole group was ready, they ate, fed their pokémon, and proceeded towards the gym, which was in the northwestern part of the city, near the water.

The Sunyshore City Gym looked like any ordinary gym on the outside—just a cylindrical building with a massive pokéball emblazoned on the front. As Niko and his friends entered, however, they saw a completely different inside.

The gym looked like the inside of some machine, with gears turning clockwise and counterclockwise all along the walls. In the center of the main room was a yellow-colored battlefield with white lines to demarcate the borders. At the opposite end of the field stood Flint and a tall blonde-haired man of roughly the same height—and taller than Niko. Upon seeing the group, Flint waved the group over.

"Hey, guys! Welcome to the Sunyshore Gym!" Flint shouted. "This is the guy I was telling ya about—Volkner! He isn't really a fan of lame battles, and so I put in a good word for you two—told him about our double battle yesterday, and he seemed excited! Just give him all you've got and it'll be a fun day!"

Niko smiled as he shook Flint's hand, and then Volkner's. The gym leader was tall, blonde, and had blue eyes like Niko's. But his expression seemed aloof and uninterested in the world around him.

"Pleasure to meet the two of you. I'm Volkner, the Sunyshore City Gym Leader. My battles are generally four-versus-four, if that's alright. Now, who'll go first?" He asked, pointing to Niko and Lauren. The blue-haired woman stepped forward, since Niko had gone first the previous time. Volkner nodded, seemingly cold before he turned and walked to his end of the battlefield. A referee was at the ready to explain the rules. At the start, Volkner and Lauren both summoned their pokémon. "Jolteon, I choose you!"

"Roselia, you're up!" Lauren shouted. "Use toxic spikes!"

"Quick attack!" Volkner commanded. "You'll soon find out that my pokémon aren't going to go down easily. There's a reason why trainers often come to me for their final gym badge. Jolteon, follow up with iron tail!"

"Petal dance, roselia!" Lauren commanded. The thorn pokémon spun around, sending a vortex of petal into the air, catching jolteon within them. The lightning pokémon spun around in midair, damaged by the vicious pink petals. Roselia then spun around again and summoned magical leaf, which made a direct hit and launched jolteon further into the air. The electric type crashed onto the ground, albeit not yet defeated.

"Jolteon, charge beam!" Volkner called out. Jolteon opened its maw and out came a straight jet of electric power, directly hitting roselia and knocking her off of her balance. "Now, quick attack into iron tail!"

"Roselia, can you keep going?" The grass type nodded. "Great! Use grasswhistle!" Roselia blew into her thin, green arm and played a soothing melody and caused jolteon to crash into the ground, quickly falling asleep. "Now, magical leaf!"

Volkner grit his teeth. He was already struggling with Lauren. Just then, his opponent commanded roselia to use one more petal dance, which tossed jolteon into the air. As it was about to crash onto the floor, roselia launched out another magical leaf, which ended the lightning pokémon.

"Jolteon is unable to battle, roselia wins!" The referee said. "Leader Volkner will now send out his second pokémon!"

"Luxray, I choose you!" Volkner shouted. Upon being send out, a nasty purple circle appeared underneath the gleam eyes pokémon, automatically poisoning it from the toxic spikes. "Fire fang!"

"Roselia, magical leaf!" Lauren commanded. However, she underestimated luxray's speed. The electric type took the hit without complaint and was quickly upon her pokémon. Its teeth on fire, luxray chomped down on roselia, picking her up and tossing her around. "Use magical leaf again!" Lauren said, taking advantage of the poison coursing through luxray at the moment. While still falling to the ground, roselia unleashed another barrage of purple leaves, all of which hit luxray and knocked it back a little. "Now, petal dance!"

"Dodge and use fire fang!" Volkner directed. The gleam eyes pokémon sidestepped the vortex of petals and charged at roselia, who was about midway across the field, and severely injured from the first fire fang. Just as luxray opened its mouth to attack, roselia tossed out one final magical leaf, dealing a critical amount of damage to the already injured luxray.

"Roselia is unable to battle, luxray wins!" The ref declared. "Challenger Lauren will now send out her second pokémon!"

"Infernape, I choose you!" Lauren commanded. "Use mach punch!"

"Luxray, thunder fang!" Volkner shouted. Before luxray could react, infernape was on it, slamming its fist into luxray's right side, slamming it to the ground. Lauren then commanded infernape to use close combat. Before luxray could get back up, the flame pokémon was already beating on it, throwing kicks and punches with incredible speed. Eventually, infernape paused and allowed luxray to get back up. The gleam eyes pokémon stared it down, watching its movements.

"Infernape, flare blitz!"

"Thunderfang!" Volkner shouted. The fire monkey lit her entire body on fire before bursting forward towards her opponent. Luxray then charged forward as well, its teeth surging with electricity. Both pokémon collided long enough for their respective attacks to deal damage. It was luxray, however, that was unable to keep up.

"Luxray is unable to battle, infernape wins! Leader Volkner will send out his third pokémon!" The ref declared.

"Raichu, let's go!" The gym leader shouted. "Buddy, let's show them that we mean business. Use quick attack!" Before attacking, raichu felt the toxic spikes take effect, automatically poisoning it.

"Infernape, flame wheel!" Lauren directed. The fire monkey leapt into a wheel of fire, revolving quickly towards the electric mouse, who in turn charged forward. Upon colliding, infernape fell forward, past raichu, temporarily paralyzed. "What?"

"Raichu's ability—static. Often, whenever raichu gets hit physically, electricity will rub off of him and onto his opponent. If you want to go anywhere in the Pokémon League, it's important to understand the abilities of your opponent. Now, raichu, use focus blast!"

"Infernape, return!" Lauren directed, returning the flame pokémon. "You've done well so far, buddy. Let's keep it up. Glaceon, I choose you!"

"Raichu, remain using focus blast!" Volkner commanded. However, the attack was quickly lost in glaceon's icy wind, which kept raichu down momentarily. Lauren then thought more about her choice—glaceon primarily knows physical moves. Gritting her teeth, she continued to command glaceon to use icy wind, which only halted their opponent in his tracks. Volkner smirked. "Realizing now how difficult static is to deal with?" Lauren nodded. "Fair enough. Some trainers have difficulty with it. Just know that it isn't a guarantee. Raichu, use quick attack!"

Lauren hesitated, but decided to continue. "Glaceon, use quick attack as well!" The ice type rushed forward, a white streak lighting up behind her. She collided with raichu, trying to not let the static take hold of her. "Ice fang!"

As glaceon was edging away from raichu, she lurched her head backwards and bit down on raichu's back. The electric mouse yelped in pain. Just before he wanted to use another attack, the poison took effect, causing raichu to glow a bright purple color for a brief moment. Then Volkner called out for raichu to use focus blast.

"Let go!" Lauren shouted. Jolteon unlatched her teeth, but found herself unable to move any further. Just as the focused sphere of energy was about to be launched, glaceon summoned a cold gale of wind directly at her opponent, just as the poison took effect once more.

"Raichu and glaceon are both unable to battle! Volkner and Lauren will now send out their next pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Glaceon, return. You did great, girl. I'm proud of you. Infernape, let's go!" She shouted, realizing that the fire monkey was still paralyzed, but nevertheless able to move slowly this time.

Volkner picked out a fourth pokéball, and eyed it carefully. "You've been a worthy challenger so far, Lauren. I hope you can keep that up. Electivire, I choose you!"

Out of Volkner's pokéball came out a yellow and black striped behemoth with wires stemming from its back and twisting and turning in a wild-like fashion. In the stands, Niko, JJ, and Brittany looked shocked by it.

" _Electivire, the thunderbolt pokémon. Electric type. Heedless of enemy attacks, it closes in, shoves its tails onto the foe, then looses high voltage._ "

Volkner smirked. Electivire, giga impact!"

"Infernape, flare blitz!" Lauren commanded, hoping that the flame pokémon could handle the powerful attack. As it turned out, the flare blitz seemed to minimize some of the damage, as infernape attempting to use the attack to roll around Electivire before slamming into the electric type's side. Nonetheless, the stun from raichu earlier had exhausted infernape, giving Electivire the edge. "Now, close combat!"

"Electivire, thunderpunch!" Volkner shouted. The massive yellow and black pokémon turned towards infernape and, with an electrified fist, slammed down on its opponent. Infernape attempted to dodge, instead feeling the electricity surge through the side of her face. The two then engaged in a brief fight, exchanging punches and kicks with one another until electivire slammed down its thunderpunch onto infernape's head, forcing the fire monkey into the floor of the battlefield. Just then, the poison from earlier surged through electivire, bringing it to one knee.

"Infernape is unable to battle! Electivire wins! Lauren will now send out her final pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Infernape, return. You did great, buddy. But now, we're down to one more. Lopunny, I choose you!"

"Ah, interesting choice. Electivire, giga impact!"

"Lopunny, dodge with bounce!" Lauren commanded. As the thunderbolt pokémon charged forward, engulfed in a powerful coat of orange and white energy, lopunny took to the air, using its powerful legs to leap directly upwards before slamming back down on electivire. "Use hi jump kick!"

Lopunny kicked her opponent behind its head, knocking it forward in Lauren's direction. However, just as lopunny was about to leap backwards, one of electivire's wires caught hold of lopunny. The wire twitched and twisted, eventually slamming lopunny into the ground as well.

"Swing lopunny around!" Volkner commanded. Electivire spun around, quickly gathering momentum and it swung the rabbit around the field, eventually letting go after a few revolutions. Lopunny was tossed into the stands opposite the group, crashing in one of the seats.

"Lopunny, agility!" Lauren called out. "Then, use bounce!"

"Electivire, be prepared!" Volkner shouted. "Use thunderpunch!"

"Hi jump kick!" Lauren commanded.

As soon as lopunny was about to land, electivire's fist was ready to attack, as it was surging with an incredible amount of electricity. However, the poison took effect once more, forcing electivire to cringe. Lopunny then slammed her foot on top of electivire's head, knocking it to the ground. Lopunny jumped back, waiting for electivire to get back up. It wasn't able to.

"Electivire is unable to battle, lopunny wins! The victory goes to Lauren from Canalave City!" The referee declared.

Lauren breathed a fresh sigh of relief. She did it. She qualified for the Pokémon League. She held out her arms wide as lopunny ran forward to embrace her. "I'm so proud of you, lopunny. We're going to the Pokémon League now!" Lopunny cheered happily as well, not seeming as tired as Lauren thought she would be. They both then turned to Niko, who briefly hugged his girlfriend and congratulated lopunny. "You're up, kid."

Niko smirked. "Kid? Really?"

Lauren nodded her head happily. "Don't lose, alright?" She said with a wink before walking into the stands to join Brittany and JJ. Niko smiled before turning to Volkner's end of the field, which was vacant due to the gym leader healing his team. Minutes later, he returned to the field, ready to continue.

"Niko, let's hope your battle is as good as Lauren's. I had an incredible time just now." He said, quickly eying Lauren and Flint before turning back to Niko. "Are you ready? Jolteon, I choose you!"

"Staraptor, let's go!" Niko shouted. "Use aerial ace!"

"Jolteon, charge beam!" Volkner commanded. Staraptor dove towards the lightning pokémon, dodging the pure beam of electricity, before crashing into his opponent.

"Close combat, now!" Niko shouted. Staraptor then struck at jolteon time after time with its talons, trying to do as much possible damage to jolteon before letting go. Unfortunately, staraptor didn't have to—jolteon launched an up-close charge beam that hit staraptor directly in the chest, knocking the bird backwards and onto the ground. "Double team!"

"Iron tail!" Volkner shouted. Jolteon's backside began to glow a bright gray as it leapt forward, somersaulting through the air and landing on one of staraptor's copies. Before long, the predator pokémon was slamming into jolteon from the side with aerial ace, knocking the lightning pokémon to the side. "Charge beam!"

"Dodge and use close combat!" Niko shouted. Staraptor spun to the right before opening his wings and gliding forward, slapping jolteon across the side with his wing and then moving on in with his talons. This kept up for another minute before jolteon repeated with a charge beam, once more striking staraptor in the chest and launching it backwards, only this time further, since the attack had more force behind it.

"Thunder wave!" Volkner shouted. Jolteon unleashed a field of electricity, launching sparks in every direction across the field, eventually hitting staraptor and temporarily stunning it. Smirking, Volkner commanded jolteon to use charge beam this time. It was a direct hit, and succeeded in keeping staraptor down.

"Staraptor is unable to battle, jolteon wins! Challenger Niko will send out his second pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Staraptor, return. You did great, buddy." Niko said, pocketing his pokéball. "Alright, then. Let's go, torterra!" Niko shouted, summoning his massive ground type. "Energy ball!"

"Jolteon, dodge and use quick attack!" Volkner commanded. "Wise choice, Niko, but not unique. I see torterra quite often in this gym."

"I'd expect you to. And I'm not trying to surprise you. Torterra, razor leaf!"

"Terr!" Torterra shouted as he summoned a flurry of razor sharp leaves from the tree on his back. They collided with jolteon, which while slowing the lightning pokémon down, didn't defeat it. It was only when jolteon got close enough that the fight was over.

"Crunch!" Niko shouted. Torterra opened its mouth as soon as jolteon got within striking distance. The massive land turtle briefly jumped forward, latching its jaws around jolteon and biting down, defeating the electric type.

"Jolteon is unable to battle, torterra wins! Leader Volkner will now send out his second pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Jolteon, return. Raichu, I choose you!" He shouted, summoning the electric mouse once more. "I prepare for every contingency, Niko. Be careful. Use signal beam!"

"Torterra, retaliated with energy ball!" Niko commanded. Raichu's tail began to glow a variety of shimmering colors before it whipped the tail forward, unleashing a beam of colors at torterra. However, the attack was halted by energy ball, which collided with signal beam midway across the battlefield.

"Use focus blast!" Volkner commanded. Niko watched at raichu made another attempt to attack. But he would wait for the right time. Instead, he asked torterra to use razor leaf once more, which succeeded in blocking the focus blast.

"Now, torterra! Earthquake!" Niko commanded, thrusting his hand forward. Fortunately, the earthquake only affected the battlefield. Raichu shook violently, eventually losing his balance and falling on the floor. Niko and Volkner both braced themselves as the battlefield rocked and shook in its entirety. Raichu tried to get back up, albeit moving slowly. He attempted another signal beam, but the attack proved to be far weaker due to exhaustion. Niko and torterra responded with an energy ball that blocked the attack, and then finished raichu off with razor leaf.

"Raichu is unable to battle, torterra wins!" The referee declared. "Leader Volkner will now send out his third pokémon!"

"Hmm…return, raichu. You did well. We just got bested by a ground type is all. Luxray, you're up!"

Niko expected this. He knew how luxray operated. And having watched Lauren's previous match, figured that he knew how to combat it. _Luxray is fast, torterra is a tank. I think as long as we keep luxray far away, we can win_. "Torterra, energy ball!"

"Luxray, dodge it and use ice fang!" Volkner commanded, thrusting his own hand out in front of him. The gleam eyes pokémon sprinted around the green ball of pure energy before leaping through the air halfway across the field. With incredible speed and strength, the luxray landed to torterra's side, and bit down hard on the continent pokémon's shell.

Torterra cried out, the ice cold fangs sensitive on his green shell. He then tried to turn to the side, but was too slow. Luxray then jumped on top of torterra to use ice fang on his spikes. Biting down on the sides of them proved to deal a critical amount of damage to torterra, who was now trying to shake luxray off.

"Torterra, earthquake again!" Niko shouted with a fiery passion. Torterra roared to the heavens as he aggressively shook the ground around him. Luxray held on, its icy fangs latched on to one of torterra's smaller shell spikes. Nevertheless, as soon as the earthquake ended, luxray let go, jumping off of the continent pokémon. Niko sighed a breath of relief. "Now, use razor leaf!"

"Luxray, dodge and use fire fang!" Volkner commanded. Once more, luxray leapt onto the shell and bit down on the same spike, this time with fiery teeth. Torterra roared out once again, the pain of the fire fang hurting it more due to the aftereffects of ice fang's cold touch. Torterra collapsed to the ground, struggling to get back up.

"Torterra, can you do it?" Niko asked. He couldn't see it, but the continent pokémon was trying to nod. "I think you can do it, buddy. I believe in you." Torterra then slowly stood back up, eying luxray, who was now standing directly in front of him. Torterra took a few heavy breaths of air, and then used earthquake once more with all of his remaining energy. In response, luxray leapt into the air before crashing down on torterra's head and using it as a stepping stone to his spikes, where he landed a final ice fang.

"Torterra is unable to battle, luxray wins! Niko will now send out his third pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Torterra, return. I'm so proud of you, buddy. You really made this gym battle easier." He then looked up at Volkner. _Can I still win this? He has electivire still, and with torterra gone, this will be difficult. But we can do it_. "Rampardos, I choose you!"

Volkner nodded. "Alright, this will get interesting, then. Luxray, thunderfang!"

"Rampardos, flamethrower!" Niko commanded, thrusting his hand out. Luxray managed to dodge the move, but didn't get by without accidentally burning itself on the edge of the fire. Luxray then launched at rampardos, who lowered his head in anticipation. To him, it was obvious was Niko wanted him to do. "Zen headbutt!"

Rampardos' head began to spark into a bright blue color as he surged forward, hitting luxray in the chest and launching it backwards across the field.

"Now, finish it off with ancientpower!" Niko shouted with passion. Rampardos obliged, conjuring a series of fossils from the ground and throwing them one by one at luxray, who collapsed after the first one and was finished by the last one.

"Luxray is unable to battle, rampardos wins! Leader Volkner will send out his final pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Electivire, you're up! Let's win this!" Volkner shouted. "Niko, you're really giving me a run for my money, here. Well done."

"Thanks, Volkner. I appreciate that. Rampardos, flamethrower!"

"Electivire, block it with giga impact!" Volkner shouted. The thunderbolt pokémon surrounded itself in a heavy shield of white and orange energy before bursting forward, through the jet of flame. However, instead of being afraid, Niko simply smirked.

"No one's head is stronger than rampardos', right buddy? Use zen headbutt!"

Rampardos lowered his head before charging forward at electivire. The two met on Niko's end of the field, with electivire falling to the ground from the impact. Rampardos looked down at his opponent, pleased with the outcome of that crash. Niko then commanded him to use flamethrower, to which electivire retaliated with fire punch, which repelled the flamethrower. Electivire used it to help it stand back up before thrusting it at rampardos' face, the force of which was enough to KO any ordinary pokémon.

"Electivire, thunderpunch!" Volkner commanded. The thunderbolt pokémon then socked rampardos in the chest, forcing the dinosaur to double over. "And again!" Electivire then uppercut rampardos, launching him into the air briefly. "Now, quick attack into thunderpunch!"

Before rampardos was about to land, electivire burst forward once more, slamming its fist into the dinosaur's chest once more, bringing it to the ground. Electivire then backed off for a moment, waiting for its opponent to get back up. Rampardos eventually did, albeit slowly. As soon as he did so, he lowered his head.

"Zen headbutt!" Niko commanded. Rampardos charged forward without question, slamming into electivire and pushing back on the thunderbolt pokémon. "Keep it up, rampardos! You can do it! This is _the_ moment we've been training for! GO!"

Rampardos roared out, digging its claws into the ground as he continued to drag electivire across the battlefield. He was eventually stopped when electivire brought down its electrified fist onto the dinosaur, forcing it to collapse to the ground.

"Get back up, rampardos! You can do this!" Niko shouted.

"Electivire, let's finish rampardos! Use thunderpunch!"

"Flamethrower!" Niko shouted. Rampardos lurched his head back up and released a jet of flame from his maw, engulfing the area around Electivire's fist. "Now, ancientpower!" Rampardos obliged, conjuring ancient rocks to surround electivire, all hitting the thunderbolt pokémon at the same time. "Now, finish it off with zen headbutt!"

Rampardos charged forward, slamming his glowing blue head into electivire. The thunderbolt pokémon stumbled backwards from the onslaught of moves, eventually falling on its back, this time in defeat.

"Electivire is unable to battle, rampardos wins! The victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!" The referee declared, throwing up a white flag on Niko's side.

Niko smiled cheerfully, watching at rampardos turned and ran over to him, happier than can be. Niko ran forward and embraced his pokémon. "You've come so far, buddy…I'm proud of what you've shown me today."

Rampardos nodded, unable to control his own happiness. From his perspective, he felt like he proved his worth to Niko, and wanted that very moment to last as long as possible.

Eventually, the two had to let go of one another, as Volkner, the referee, electivire, Flint, and the rest of the group gathered around. Lauren stepped forward to be alongside Niko and rampardos as Volkner reached into his pocket and pulled out two yellow and silver badges, each in the shape of a beacon emitting a yellow light.

"I pride good battles, and strong trainers. They are the only thing keeping me grounded at this gym. Years ago, I almost quit, but Flint and a young trainer—also from Kanto—sparked the fire in me, and made me realize what fun being a gym leader can be. Today, both of you proved that to me once more, and I cannot thank you enough for it. So here, I present to each of you the Beacon Badge, as proof that you have defeated me and, as it looks like it's your eighth gym badge, your qualification for the Pokémon League in a week. I wish you both only the best, and hope that maybe one of you will end up challenging Flint in the Champion's League."

"Champion's League?" Niko asked, tilting his head to the side. Rampardos mimicked him.

"It's for the victor at the Pokémon League. Whoever wins gets offered the opportunity to challenge the Elite 4 and, if they win there, then the Champion, who is currently Cynthia, and has remained so for quite some time." Flint explained. "Trust me, I've tried to defeat her on numerous occasions, but every time I seem to clutch at the last minute."

Niko and Lauren nodded in understanding before turning back to Volkner. "Thank you for the opportunity to battle, and for the badge. Neither of us will let you down!" Lauren said excitedly. Niko wrapped his arm around her. They finally made it. They were both going to the Pokémon League.


	51. To the Pokemon League!

**Episode 51: To the Pokémon League!**

Following Niko and Lauren's victory at the Sunyshore City Gym, the group went off to eat in celebration, courtesy of Flint, who joined them. There, the four of them asked what it was like being a member of the Elite 4. They have met several elites along their journey, but it always felt like a unique experience meeting each individual. And most of the time they would battle the elite, but briefly, and then be on their way. Here, they got a chance to really get to know one of them.

"So it doesn't seem like too much work, actually." JJ finally commented.

"Oh, it totally can be. We don't just compete in the Champion's League every year. We also constantly train at the Pokémon League, where we stay for part of the year. And we act as keepers of the peace around our region, in the event of some calamity, or even just keeping the streets safe. So, in some ways, we're also a police force, travelling the region and making sure nothing bad is going on. In recent years, we've been honing our focus more on gangs and organizations with evil intent, especially after the first Team Galactic incident." He smirked, looking at the four. "I was actually on my way to Mt. Coronet with Lucian—another member of the Elite 4—when you all finished off Hunter J and what remains of Team Galactic with Cynthia. So, thanks for that!"

"You're welcome, Flint." JJ said, eying Niko, who looked away. "Anyways, I assume you'll be watching the Pokémon League in person this year?"

"Oh, indeed. Every year. And I expect to be challenging whoever comes out on top. Hopefully its one of you two." He pointed to Niko and Lauren, who were sitting across from him. "But, yes, I'll be there. I've got some stuff to finish up in Sunyshore before I head off. Speaking of which, you all might need a ride there. The Pokémon League is situated on an island up north. It isn't far—only a couple of days away, but it's still a journey all the same. The island is called Lily of the Valley Island. It's a nice city, resting on the edge of a rather large island that is for the most part uninhabited. I'm sure you'll enjoy it there."

"So where do you suggest we go to get a ride?" Niko asked before sipping his drink.

"I know a guy that works in the port. He can help ya out." Flint said with a smile. "Come on, let's go." He motioned the group out of the restaurant and towards the docks. It took some time, but they finally made it.

From their vantage point, Niko could see the ocean beyond him. Somewhere, on the other end, lay Lily of the Valley Island, and the long-awaited Sinnoh League. There, he could continue his journey to becoming a Pokémon Master. Lauren stood next to him, and he began to think of her as well. _I don't know if Lauren's ever told me what she wants to do. She competes in contests and in Pokémon Leagues. Does she also want to be a master? Does she want to be Top Coordinator in a region?_ Then, as he pondered the upcoming Sinnoh League, another thought dropped in his mind. _I wonder if I'll have to battle Lauren at some point. If we're both intending to win, like me and Fay were, or me and Melinda were, then I'm quite sure Lauren and I will eventually have to face one another. Can I beat her, though?_

By the time he came back to reality, he noticed everyone staring at him. "Oh, sorry everyone. Just thinking."

"No worries!" Flint exclaimed. "Anyways, I just talked with one of my old friends. His name is Damien, and he owns a boat service that goes anywhere around Sinnoh. I've given him your names, and whenever you're ready to leave, just go find him over there." Flint pointed to a medium-sized building called "Damien's Rent-a-boat!" He chuckled. "He was never good at naming his businesses, but he's one of the best out there.

"I've got to head out, though. Niko, Lauren, best of luck in the Pokémon League. I look forward to watching you both from the stands. If your battles with Volkner are an indication of anything, then you'll both do very well."

"Thanks again, Flint. For everything." Niko said, shaking his hand.

"We both really appreciate the advice—and the boat." Lauren said with an enthusiastic smile. Flint returned the expression before saying farewell to Brittany and JJ and then walking off.

"So…" Niko said openly, turning to his friends. "Should we get going?"

"Absolutely!" JJ said, togepi cooing in agreement. "But first I've got to do something. Let's go back to the Pokémon Center."

"Right! I should call my family, actually." Niko said, turning to walk off with JJ, leaving the girls alone.

"So…what do you want to do?" Brittany asked, turning to her blue-haired companion.

"We could just walk around the city for a bit. Meet up with the boys in like an hour or so?" Lauren suggested with a shrug. Brittany agreed, and the two walked off in another direction.

* * *

Back at the Pokémon Center, both Niko went to call his family from the video-call service that the center provides. Meanwhile, JJ was off gathering supplies for their trip, as they and their pokémon had already gone through the produce he and Brittany bought the previous day. He also wanted to take advantage of the Pokémon Center's poffin machine to cook up food for everyone's teams—especially Niko's and Lauren's, both of whom would need the energy to compete in the Sinnoh League.

"Hello?" Niko's Mom said through the monitor.

"Hi Mom! It's Niko." He said. Soon enough, his dad also appeared next to Mom. And, unlike last time, there were no pokémon interrupting from behind. "How is everything?"

"Good! We're actually getting ready to leave for Indigo Plateau in the next couple of days." Dad said, a smile creeping on his face. "Ready for the Pokémon League?"

"How did you know I even qualified?" Niko asked teasingly. To that, both of his parents raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, we know you did. You did…didn't you?" Mom asked in an accusatory tone.

"Of course I did! Earlier today, actually!" Niko said in mock defense. "So did Lauren. We're actually leaving for Lily of the Valley Island later today!" Niko then explained how they met Flint and Damien's boat service that they're taking advantage of. He had to go into as much detail as he could, since his parents were the kind of people that would ask a lot of questions, all pertaining to every nuanced logistic possible. When he was done, he decided to change the subject. "How's Jake doing?"

"Great! He actually just arrived at Indigo Plateau. We'll be going there first before Lily of the Valley."

"So I assume he got all eight badges?" His parents nodded. "Great to hear!"

"He also has pokémon staying here with us. We needed to get another box to hold the pokéballs for them, so we wouldn't confuse them with yours." Mom explained. "Oh, Niko…we're so proud of both of you."

"Heh, thanks Mom."

"By the way, we heard Brittany won the Grand Festival. That must have been exciting for her." Dad added.

"Oh you can't even imagine…we were all through the roof about it! She's been working really hard for it."

"Lauren did quite well too, didn't she?" Mom asked. "You _were_ rooting for her, weren't you?"

Again, Niko stammered a little before answering. "Of-of course I did! I cheered for both of them! It was difficult when they had to face each other, but I was always in both of their camps." His Mom gave a glaring look to him, as if he did something wrong. "Mom…Lauren _is_ my girlfriend, but Brittany is one of my closest friends! How could I _not_ cheer her on?"

"Fair enough…anyways, we won't keep you any longer. Please be safe in getting to Lily of the Valley." Mom said.

"Wait! One more thing…" Niko said before ending the call. "Can you bring all of my pokémon with me?"

"All of them?" Both of his parents repeated.

"All of them. I want to compete with as many of them as I can. I owe them that much. Plus, I'm sure they've learned some new moves while I've been away."

"Oh, you can be sure of that, Niko." Dad said with a wink before ending the call.

Smiling to no one, Niko sat back in the chair and thought about a considerable number of things. Primarily, his brother: Jake was competing in the Indigo League. The same league he once competed in over three years ago. _How time flies…through the years…_ He thought to himself. He hoped with every fiber of his being that Jake did better than he did. He certainly had the skill to do well, if their adventures in Hoenn and their summer training sessions afterwards were an indication of anything. In addition, he's probably gotten far stronger as a trainer.

Then, he thought about his own pokémon, the 16 or so that he left back in Pallet Town. He missed them a lot, and after what his dad said, Niko wondered how much stronger some of them actually were. Did they learn moves that would help him get further in the Pokémon League?

Standing back up, he realized there were people waiting to use the video call. "Sorry…" He apologized, lowering his head and walking through the lobby to his room, where he found JJ packaging up the poffins he had made. "How'd it go?"

"Oh, great! The poffin machine here is really up-to-date. Best one I've seen in a while. How was the video chat?"

"Good. Jake's at Indigo Plateau now, getting ready to compete in the league. Also, my parents will be coming to Lily of the Valley to watch."

"Awesome! Wonder if Fay is joining as well."

"That'd be nice, actually. Also I asked my parents to bring my other pokémon back. I'll need at least one of them to compete." JJ nodded, continuing his packaging. Later, the girls came back from their excursion into the city. "How was the walk?"

"Great! It helped to clear my head a little, especially after everything that's been going on. How're you?" Lauren said, sitting down on their bed next to him. "How was the family?" Niko then explained everything to her and Brittany, reiterating the main points of his conversation with his parents.

"I can't believe Jake's going to the Indigo League now!" Brittany said happily. "He really has grown up, hasn't he?"

Niko nodded, not sure how to respond. "Yeah, it's incredible, actually."

"And you get to see your old pokémon again, and I get to meet your family!" Lauren said. "Oh…I get to meet your family…" She said nervously, suddenly looking unsure of herself. When Niko inquired into the matter, she looked up at him with the same expression. "What if they don't like me? What if I say something wrong?"

"You won't." Niko said, throwing his arm around her and pulling her closer to him. "They'll love you. I promise."

"He's right, Lauren. They like me a lot, too!" Brittany said. "And, heck, they both wondered when Niko and I would get together!" She said, looking somewhat embarrassed. She initially expected Lauren to express jealousy, but the blue-haired woman simply smiled with gratitude.

"Thanks. I'll do my best, then!" She then pecked Niko on the cheek.

"Done!" JJ said after packaging the last poffin. "I've made enough poffins here for the next couple of days, and some extra ones for Niko and Lauren. I hope Lily of the Valley has a machine, so that I can make some more." He then looked up at the group around him, all looking back at him. "You guys want to head off now?"

"Sure, bud. Let's get going." Niko said, grabbing his bag and slinging it around his shoulders. He then raised a fist to the air and shouted, with excitement, "To the Pokémon League!"

"To the Pokémon League!" His friends repeated with equal enthusiasm.


	52. Lily of the Valley

**Episode 52: Lily of the Valley**

Niko watched Lily of the Valley Island come into view as the boat quickly glided over the sea. The trip had taken a couple of days, but it was well worth the wait, as Niko found himself enamored by the port city on the island. That's where he and Lauren would be competing in the Sinnoh League—finally.

He didn't stay on the deck of the boat for long, as he often finds himself getting motion sickness. Going back down to the lower levels he found JJ, Brittany, and Lauren sitting there, either reading, sleeping, or grooming their pokémon. He sat down next to Lauren, watching her slide in and out of consciousness, and waited for them to dock on the island.

* * *

"Hello! Welcome to Lily of the Valley Island!" A cheerful young woman said as the group entered the city. "We hope you enjoy your stay!"

"Thank you." Niko said curtly before moving along. "The stadium shouldn't be too hard to find…right?"

"Nope!" JJ said. "It's probably not too far from here."

He was right—the stadium was rather easy to find—and looked similar to the other Pokémon Leagues they've been to. There was a main stadium with three smaller stadiums adjoined to it by connecting tunnels. As usual, the four of them walked through the massive courtyard, complete with fountains, trimmed bushes in the shapes of pokémon, and numerous different trainers and pokémon walking around and socializing.

"Niko…is it usually this, err, busy?" Lauren asked, leaning closely to her boyfriend and whispering in a nervous tone.

"Sometimes, yeah. But it gets busier the closer we get to the actual tournament start."

"Eep!" Lauren shouted. "H-how many people do we compete in front of?"

"Thousands, probably. I don't actually know. But hey, don't worry about it. It's going to be like the Grand Festival. Just focus only on your pokémon and your opponent. They are all that matter."

"I guess you're right…" Lauren said, sounding a little defeated. Not much more was said until they went into the main stadium building and found the registration desk. Since they were still a couple of days out from the actual tournament, the lines weren't very long. Niko and Lauren both stood in line for several minutes before it was their turn. Lauren went first.

"Hello young lady, here to register?" A middle-aged woman said politely. Lauren nodded, albeit a little nervously. "Alright then, may I see your badge case and pokédex?"

"Sure. Here..." Lauren said, pulling out her badge case and pokédex. The registration lady eyed the badges while she input the pokédex into some sort of machine.

"Alright, Coal, Forest, Relic, Cobble, Fen, Mine, Icicle, and Beacon badges. Well done!" She said, handing the case and pokédex back. "Now, you're registered! The tournament begins two days from now. The Opening Ceremony will be the night before. Here is some information on the tournament, and your hotel key. Are you staying with a group?" Lauren nodded, replying with four people, one of whom is also competing. "Gotcha. Well then, here's a different key for you and your group. Best of luck!"

"Thank you so much." Lauren said, briefly bowing before turning and walking away to let Niko register. Within a minute he too was finished, and the two reunited with Brittany and JJ. "We got us a room!" She said, dangling the keys.

"Hopefully we get a suite like the last couple of times!" JJ said, seemingly excited. They then walked up to their room to find a two-bedroom suit with a common room in the middle, just like always. "YES!" JJ shouted excitedly, running into one of the rooms and tossing his bags on the ground next to his bed. Togepi cheered out happily as well, quite unaware of why she was in the first place.

Niko and Lauren went into the opposite room and set down their bags before Niko fell down on one of the beds. Lauren fell down next to him. "What's up?" She asked.

"Nothing. Just can't believe I'm here." Niko said. "This is my fourth Pokémon League, Lauren. I'd like to see if I've improved at all."

"You definitely have, though." Lauren said, leaning in close to him. "I think you're going to go to the finals. Just my prediction, though."

"Psh, really? You and me both, though." He said. "That's where we'll battle."

"Yep! We're going to do it!" She said with an eager smile.

* * *

The next day, Niko and Lauren were out in one of the fields near the courtyard training with their teams when a familiar face began running up to them.

"Ian?" Niko asked, noticing a pikachu running alongside the blonde-haired trainer in a white shirt and plaid shorts. "Ian! Hey!"

"Niko! Brittany! Lauren! JJ!" Ian said, tackling Niko to the ground. After rolling off of him, Ian got back up and greeted the other three with handshakes. "You guys made it, too! How exciting!"

"Yeah, how've you been?" Niko asked, genuinely interested. He enjoyed meeting up with Ian on occasion—the kid was nice, if a bit hyper, but didn't seem to have a bad bone in his body—unlike some other trainers.

"Great, actually. Just beat Volkner a couple days ago, and now I'm here! What about you all?"

"Not bad. Lauren and I beat Volkner a couple days ago as well. We must've missed you by a day or a couple hours. We got here yesterday, just training for now."

Ian grinned. "Well, that's awesome! Brittany, or should I say Top Coordinator! Congrats!" He said, walking in for a hug. Brittany hesitated at first, but obliged, even blushing a little at the situation. Lauren smirked while JJ and Niko exchanged curious, but pleasant, looks.

"Thanks, we did better than we thought. My team, I mean." Brittany replied, stammering slightly in her speech.

"Still something not many people can accomplish. You should be very proud of yourself." Ian said. "And so am I." Brittany turned away, blushing a little again. "Anyways, I need to go register. Let's hang out before the tournament!" He then ran off, pikachu at his heels. Niko and his friends all waved to him as he proceeded towards the stadium.

"He's a good guy, Ian." Niko said.

"Yeah, Brittany would agree." Lauren said, sniggering a little. "Wouldn't you?" She asked, leaning towards the brunette.

"I—I…yes, he's very nice." Brittany replied, not looking Lauren directly in the eyes.

"Oh, I bet you think he is." Lauren continued before Niko pulled her away and the two got back to training.

Later that day, it seemed like more people were showing up, either to watch or to register. And so it wasn't long until Niko recognized yet another person. And it was the last person he wanted to see.

Hunter.

JJ noticed it next, turning to Niko with caution. "Niko…don't do or say anything." He warned, looking back at the tall, jet-black hair man with all-black clothing.

"I won't. Only if he provokes me." Niko replied, balling up a fist.

"Not even if he provokes you. You have to back away." Brittany added, also cautiously.

Niko sighed. "Fine. I won't. I just hope I don't have to battle him. I don't think I could beat him." He was right—Niko genuinely believed that he could beat Hunter. In their few encounters, he has not once beaten one of Hunter's pokémon. Actually, as he thought more about it, he hasn't seen anyone beat one of Hunter's pokémon.

"Yes you can. On the battlefield." Lauren said, grapping his arm. Niko turned to her and nodded. He realized that his anger towards Hunter worried Lauren, and tried not to show any more emotion than was necessary. He hoped that he could get through this Pokémon League without conflict.

They continued training some more, eventually heading back into the stadium when it got dark. As soon as they walked into the main stadium's lobby, a tall boy with reddish-brown hair ran over to Niko, nearly tackling him in the same fashion as Ian.

"Niko!" Jake said as he punched his brother in the shoulder. _My god…he's stronger_. Niko thought as he rubbed his injured shoulder.

"Hey, Jake. How's it going, buddy?" Niko said, looking behind his brother to see his parents and Fay standing there. "Wow, brought the whole gang, didn't ya?"

"Of course. Sup Niko." Fay said, walking up to his former rival and shaking hands. "How've you been?"

"Just training, really. Preparing for this tournament. How've you been? How's work?"

"Busy! Just a lot of researching. I'm doing the whole 'dragon trainer' thing part-time now. Just don't have the time for it. So you've collected all of the gym badges, eh?" Fay asked, continuing the conversation as the group sat down in lobby couches. "Have any trouble with them?"

"A couple. Had to rematch one of them, actually." Niko said. "But I think with my other pokémon, together we can all make it to the finals. Oh," Niko said, turning to Lauren. "Fay, this is my girlfriend, Lauren. She's also competing here."

"Pleasure to meet you, Lauren. I'm Fay. I travelled with these guys for a couple years."

"Hi Fay! Yeah, they told me a lot about you."

"Oh?" Fay asked, raising an eyebrow. "Hopefully not bad things."

"Of course not. They said you were usually the most collected one in the group." Lauren said with a polite smile.

Fay turned to Niko, shaking his head in amusement. "So you two are in a relationship, then? Congrats, Niko. Lauren, hopefully he doesn't give you much trouble." He said with a wry laugh.

"All the time, actually!" Lauren said, turning to Jake. "And so you're Niko's brother, right?" Jake nodded. "I'm Lauren. Nice to meet you. I heard you travelled through Kanto, right?"

"Yeah, just finished competing in the Indigo League, just like Niko did. Niko, guess how far I got?" Jake asked, turning back to his brother.

Niko thought about it for a moment. "You won it, didn't you?"

"Not even close! I would've been competing in the Champion's League!" Jake said with a laugh. "No, I got Top 8. Went up against a super strong trainer from a place called Unova. You should have seen the kinds of pokémon he had!"

"Maybe we'll have to visit there someday." Niko said. "But, dude, I'm really proud of you. I mean that. You're a way better trainer than I am, that's for sure."

"Not even true!" Lauren shouted back. "Niko, we've all seen you battle!"

Niko and Lauren debated this for a few moments while Fay engaged Brittany and JJ in conversation. He congratulated Brittany on her win as well as asked a bit about the contests here. After they went in depth about the pokémon she's caught and competed with, he turned to JJ, who didn't have much else to add besides his newfound ability to cook poffins and the baby pokémon sitting in his lap.

By the time, Niko was with Lauren and his parents, introducing the two. Lauren was initially very nervous, but warmed up to them after a while. After making small talk amongst them, the whole group got up and decided to grab some dinner together and continue their conversation. Along the way, Niko noticed Hunter walking by. The two briefly exchanged glares before parting ways a second later. Lauren—who was holding Niko's hand—could feel the tension in his arm and hand as they walked by the black-haired man.

During dinner, the conversation continued, this time Niko and Jake were exchanging stories. There he learned that Jake had nearly a dozen pokémon of his own, including the three that he caught in Hoenn. For the most part, he excelled in the gyms, only having to rematch one of them. He also found travelling companions of his own, one of them who also competed in contests as they travelled through Kanto. Together, they ventured to cities Niko and his friends hadn't heard of, and must have passed by on their journeys.

"Oh, Niko, we brought your other pokémon with us. You should know that some of them learned new moves. You should try them out in battle tomorrow, alright?" Jake said.

"Yeah, I'm up for trying that. I'd like to see everyone again!" Niko said honestly.

* * *

"Alright everyone, come on out!" Niko shouted, tossing over a dozen pokéballs into the air. Out came all of the pokémon he caught in Kanto—venusaur, pidgeot, kadabra, magneton, hitmonchan, and shellder. Then those he caught in Johto—feraligatr, noctowl, yanma, and delibird. Lastly, he sent out the Hoenn team—sceptile, swellow, aggron, manectric, numel, and glalie. Without warning, all of them crowded around Niko excitedly. Aggron brought his trainer into a tight hug—tight enough that Niko felt something crack. Delibird also tackled Niko to the ground, with yanma, magneton, and shellder all hovering over him happily. "It's been so long! I missed you guys!"

Niko then looked up at venusaur and feraligatr, nodding before walking up and hugging each one. Next came sceptile, who hesitantly hugged his trainer as well. He then turned to Jake and his parents, mouthing a "thank you" to them.

"Hey, want to meet my current team?" Niko asked his reserves. They all nodded or gave vocal consent to this, and without hesitation Niko called out his five Sinnoh pokémon. "Guys, meet my other pokémon." Niko said, addressing the Sinnoh team. The five of them looked at the others with some hesitation. Eventually, torterra broke the ice, walking forward with prinplup to introduce themselves. Slowly, they all got to know each other. Niko couldn't help but briefly tear up a little at the sight. He felt briefly overwhelmed with emotion as he looked upon all of his friends, all of whom have been through thick and thin with him.

Lauren seemed to be taking a liking to Niko's pokémon. She also brought out hers so the teams could meet. For the most part, they were all cordial. The only odd introduction was slowking and shellder since, well, shellders are responsible for slowking's evolution and incredible intellect.

After a while of mingling, Jake and Fay walked up to Niko. "Hey, want to have a battle?" Jake said.

"Yeah, sure. One-on-one?" Jake nodded. "Got it. I'll use my Sinnoh team, if that's alright."

"Use yanma, actually." Jake said with a slightly more serious tone. When Niko was about to question it, Jake shook his head. "Trust me." Fay also nodded.

"Got it. Hey, yanma!" Niko said. The clear wing pokémon flew over to his trainer, looking cheerful. "Jake wants to battle against you. You up for it?"

Yanma nodded, as if knowing something that Niko didn't. They then took a few more steps until they made a sizeable battlefield in the fields. Jake stood on one end, Niko on the other. Fay acted as referee. All of Niko's pokémon, Lauren, Brittany, JJ, and his parents were watching.

"Swampert, I choose you!" Jake shouted, summoning a massive blue and orange mud fish. Swampert waved to Niko cheerfully before getting more serious, lowering his body to the ground, where he stood on all four limbs. "Use hydro pump!"

"Yanma, double team!" Niko commanded. The bug type obliged, creating duplicates of himself. "Now, use sonicboom!"

With unusual power, each duplicate launched out a vibrating wave of sound energy at swampert, who blocked it with protect. Niko then commanded yanma to rush forward with quick attack and combine it with wing attack. Yanma, however, stopped and turned to Niko.

"Yanma? C'mon, let's not let swampert win!" Niko said, thoroughly confused. Yanma then winked—which was odd, since Niko didn't think he could wink—and then cried out to the sky, fluttering his wings viciously. As he did so, rocks began to come out of the ground and surround him. He then rushed forward towards swampert, carrying the rocks with him. All of them slammed into the mud fish pokémon, who reeled back a little from the attack.

However, Jake didn't retaliate. He only looked up at yanma, who had turned briefly back to Niko before beginning to glow a bright white color. Yanma grew twice his original size. He was now dark green, with four wings with red ovular shapes on them. Each segment of his body has a red spot on him. His eyes were now ruby red with black slits running across them and vertically towards the front of his face. He had four black, blunt spikes on the top of his body—one on his head and tail, and two in between his wings. Lastly, he has two long, sharp mandibles next to his small mouth.

" _Yanmega, the ogre darner pokémon. Its jaw power is incredible. It is adept at biting apart foes while flying by at high speed_."

"You… _you_ can evolve?" Niko asked in surprise. "When did this happen?"

"I was sitting in the lab one day and came across methods of evolution by move. Turns out, just like tangela, or lickitung, yanma evolves when it masters a move. In this case, it's ancientpower. So over the past couple of months I've been trying to help yanma learn it to surprise you when you all reunited. And I told him that he would evolve the next time you battled someone, and he would show off that move before he did so."

"Wow…Fay, thanks man. I owe you one!" Niko exclaimed. "This is so cool! Yanmega, we're going to have to show you off to everyone in the Sinnoh League, alright?"

Yanmega buzzed around happily. Even though he disliked bug types, Niko has really formed a bond with yanmega, and loves having the dragonfly around.

Niko and Lauren continued on with the day, training as much as they could without exhausting themselves. It was during this time that Niko learned about some of his pokémon's other new moves. Hitmonchan learned sky uppercut; magneton learned magnet bomb; delibird learned aerial ace (with the help of swellow); feraligatr learned crunch; and sceptile learned a move called leaf storm. Niko found himself continuously impressed by each of his pokémon—even in his absence, they were still learning new things.

That evening, Niko and Lauren went onto the battlefield of the main stadium alongside the other registered contestants in anticipation of the Opening Ceremony.

* * *

"Welcome, one and all, to the Lily of the Valley Conference!" A familiar voice echoed through the microphone. "As usual, I'm President of the Pokémon League, Colton Goodshow, and I'll be your host for this year's Pokémon League in the Sinnoh region!

"We've got quite the lineup of trainers from all over Sinnoh—and around the world—competing. As usual, there will be 128 trainers registered in this single-elimination tournament style competition. The first round will consist of preliminary, one-on-one pokémon matches. Once the Top 64 trainers have been decided, tomorrow we will conduct the second round of battle. There, trainers will compete in double battles against one another to decide the Top 32. On the third day, the third round will begin, with each of the Top 32 trainers dueling it out in three-on-three match-ups to decide the Top 16. During all of these matches, trainers will be divided amongst the three smaller stadiums and this main stadium. Once we get to the full team pokémon battles, all battles will be conducted in this stadium.

"On the fourth and fifth days, we will conduct the full 6-on-6 pokémon battles until one trainer is left standing. At any point in any match (with the exception of the first and second rounds), trainers may substitute their pokémon like they are permitted to in gym battles.

"And now, we will light the torch to commence the annual Lily of the Valley Pokémon Conference!" Goodshow announced, and immediately Niko saw a man running up to the massive golden cup to light it, indicating the start of the tournament. "And now, on the monitor you will see the pairings of trainers for the first round."

Niko and Lauren looked around to find their profiles. Eventually they did—fortunately, they were in the same stadium (one of the smaller ones) and were going within a couple battles of one another. Niko also noticed Hunter battling some stranger, as well as Ian, who was also battling an unfamiliar trainer. He then looked down at Lauren, who returned the glare with a smile.

"Let's go kick some ass, Niko." She finally said, leaning up for a kiss.

Niko returned the kiss and grabbed her by the shoulders, feeling the softness of her purple and blue sweater. "You betcha."

"Welcome to the first round of the Lily of the Valley Conference! Once again, I'm Colton Goodshow, and today we've got quite the series of battles for you! In all four of our stadiums, we have 128 trainers battling it out in single-pokémon matchups. We will finish for the day once those are finished, and commence tomorrow with the second and third rounds.

"And so, without further ado, let's begin! He's a trainer from Violet City in the Johto region. She's a trainer from our very own Eterna City. Please welcome Ian and Bailey!"

Niko and his friends cheered as Ian walked onto the main battlefield. His opponent was a short, chipper-looking blonde girl. As soon as the referee explained the rules, each trainer sent out a single pokémon: Ian with lucario, and Bailey with a pokémon called magnezone. Niko looked at it curiously, wondering if it had any relation to magneton. Turns out, it did:

" _Magnezone, the magnet area pokémon. Electric and steel type. A group tried to use scientific means to make magneton evolve into magnezone but their efforts ended in failure_."

"Wow! First yanma can evolve, and now magneton, too?" Niko asked in sheer excitement. "That's so cool! It's such a cool-looking pokémon!"

Niko watched with interest as Ian and lucario fought the magnezone, who didn't seem to pose much of a match for the aura pokémon. Ian made quick work of it using lucario's aura sphere and bone rush, eventually defeating magnezone by slamming the bone on top of the steel type's center magnet, forcing it to crash into the battlefield.

"Magnezone is unable to battle, lucario wins, and the victory goes to Ian from Violet City!" The referee declared.

Niko and Lauren then watched a couple more battles—this time with Ian beside them—before heading over to the smaller stadium for their own individual battles. As usual, Lauren was nervous, and niko did whatever he could to calm her.

As they walked through the halls of the main stadium, they noticed that Hunter—unsurprisingly—also made it through the first round with his honchkrow defeating an azumarill. Seeing the highlights made JJ gulp a little.

As soon as they made it to the small stadium, Niko and Lauren parted ways with Niko's family, Ian, Brittany, Fay, and JJ, and stood at the entrance to the tunnel. Lauren was going first. Before she did, Niko hugged her tightly, whispering "good luck" in her ear before lightly pushing her into the tunnel.

"And now for our fifth battle of the day: Lauren from Canalave City and Chris from Hearthome City!" The announcer declared. Lauren walked into the stadium and saw her opponent—a tall man with long black hair and thick-rimmed glasses. He pushed them up to reveal dark eyes underneath. As soon as the referee finished explaining the rules, the battle began.

"Wormadam, I choose you!" Chris shouted, summoning a familiar bug type.

"Slowking, you're up!" Lauren shouted, suddenly feeling the nervousness leave her system. She felt lighter now, more comfortable. Niko was right—just focus on slowking and the opponent. "Use nasty plot!"

"Wormadam, leaf storm!" Chris shouted. The bagworm pokémon conjured a torrent of leaves from nowhere, all of them directed exclusively at slowking. The royal pokémon lowered his head, calming himself down, and charged through the storm to hit wormadam directly in the center of its rather small body, the horn on top of slowking's shell poking it aggressively. The grass type flew backwards and Chris, shocked by slowking's ability to run directly through a leaf storm, tried commanding another move. "Psychic!"

"Slowking, use zen headbutt once more!" Lauren said, this time calmer. Slowking ignored wormadam's attempt at using psychic, as he was in his own mind space and his psychic abilities seemed to far surpass the bagworm's. Still, slowking's attack didn't seem to defeat his opponent, who retaliated with an attempt at using attract, only to find out that slowking was in fact the same gender, and clearly not infatuated with it. This gave slowking one more opportunity to ran its shell into wormadam, this time defeating it.

"Wormadam is unable to battle, slowking wins! The victory goes to Lauren from Canalave City!" The referee declared, throwing a white flag up in Lauren's direction. Lauren ran onto the field to congratulate slowking on his victory.

"You did so well today! And against a type that you have a disadvantage to! Slowking, we're going to go very far here, I think."

Slowking nodded in response, and the two walked through the tunnel to greet Niko, who hugged the both of them.

"Looks like it's your turn, now!" She said as the next battle was getting underway. Niko's was next.

"Yeah, looks like it." Niko said as he watched the match end within a minute. "Geez…that was, well, fast. Guess I'm up."

"Good luck." Lauren said, whispering in his ear (or at least trying to). Niko smiled as he kissed her forehead and then walked into the tunnel, ready for his match to begin.

* * *

 **Author's note: Kind of a lot going on here, as most League introductions are. We've got Niko and his friends reuniting with Fay, Niko's family, and Ian. Also, yanma evolved! I personally love yanma and yanmega, so I was excited to write this part of the episode. Also, I intended to include Niko's preliminary battle here, but it was starting to get pretty long as an episode. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed!**


	53. Flying penguin

**Episode 53: Flying penguin**

"For our next match, we have Niko from Pallet Town in Kanto, and Andy from Jubilife City!" The announcer declared. Niko stood on one end of the battlefield, looking out towards his opponent, a young boy with red hair and freckles. Roughly at the same time, both trainers summoned their pokémon: Niko sent out yanmega, and Andy sent out a cherrim.

Niko had dealt with cherrims before, way back at the Eterna City gym. He firmly believed that he had the advantage here. "Alright yanmega, let's go! Use wing attack!"

"Cherrim, sunny day!" Andy shouted. The blossom pokémon then danced around, brightening the sunlight on the battlefield, and causing it to change its form. The purple petals covering cherrim were now pink petals that stood out on its head and upper back. "Now, use solarbeam!" He commanded, just a yanmega got close enough.

"Double team!" Niko called out. Luckily, yanmega was fast enough to evade the move, quickly duplicating himself and dodging the beam of green energy. He then moved in and clipped cherrim in the side with his wing before turning vertically into the air to gain distance from his opponent.

"Cherrim, magical leaf!" Andy directed. Niko knew not to attempt to dodge the move, seeing as it would always hit. Instead, he and yanmega retaliated with ancientpower, using the rocks to surround cherrim and block its movements.

"Yanmega, let's go! Use wing attack now!" Niko commanded, thrusting his hand into the air and dropping it down. The ogre darner pokémon dove straight down to the ground towards cherrim, ultimately dive-bombing it and rolling out of the cloud of dust that resulted from the impact. "Finish it off with sonicboom!"

Yanmega buzzed loudly as he conjured a wave of sonic energy, thrusting it downwards with his tail at cherrim. The impact of the blast created yet another cloud of dust. Once the cloud dissipated, a defeated cherrim lay in its wake.

"Cherrim is unable to battle, yanmega wins! The victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!" The referee declared.

"Great job, yanmega!" Niko shouted happily. The darner pokémon dove down and buzzed cheerfully around his trainer, excited to have his first win as an evolved pokémon.

With everyone's battles done for the day, the group—consisting of Niko, his friends, his family, and Ian—all went to grab a late lunch. While they were talking, the matches for the second round appeared on all monitors. Niko, Ian and Lauren both got out of their booth and ran over to the nearest TV set to view. Once more, none of them were up against trainers that they recognized. Evidently, the same was true for Hunter as well. They went back to sit down, quickly returning to their conversations.

Later that evening, Niko was sitting in the common room of his suite alone. He wanted some time away from everyone to consider who he wanted to use in his next match. It was a double battle, and so he wanted to use two pokémon that he thought might work well together. He also wanted to give another one of his reserves a chance to compete, too. With these conditions, the choice didn't seem too hard.

Minutes later, JJ walked into the room, togepi in hand. "How's it going?"

"Not bad, just thinking about tomorrow. You?"

"Not much. Kinda tired actually. Lots of socializing the past couple days. It can be a little exhausting, especially since it's not often we see so many people we know at once."

"Oh yeah, you're telling me. I hope Brittany and Lauren are alright, though. They're social batteries must be really low right now."

JJ nodded. "Lauren seemed exhausted, too. Brittany…not as much. She's just been talking with Fay and Ian for a while. Lauren's hanging out with your brother and her pokémon out in the courtyard, if you want to join."

"I think I'm good, actually. I need some rest as well."

"How're you feeling right now? About all of this, I mean." JJ asked as he stood in his room, changing.

"Good so far. Just hope I don't have to face Hunter. Nothing I haven't already told you, y'know?"

"I get ya. As someone who competed alongside Hunter, I can tell you it's really scary. Especially when he goes and just attacks his teammates pokémon."

Niko nodded, knowing that JJ didn't see it. He remembered that moment—when JJ and Hunter won in the Hearthome Tag Tournament against him and Lauren. That day was a pivotal day for all of them, especially Niko. It's the day he finally lost control of his emotions and actually attacked a person. It's also the day Lauren confessed her feelings for him. It's the day he realized he hadn't improved as much as he thought.

"Niko?" JJ asked, walking out of the room, togepi waddling beside him. Niko's head shot up in response. "Zoning out?"

"Oh, yeah. Just thinking, I guess."

"Man, you think a lot. Maybe too much, you know?" JJ said, picking togepi up. The little egg protested initially, but once she was resting in JJ's arms, she quickly felt at peace.

"Maybe. Anyways, I'm going to head off to bed. Night, JJ. Night, togepi." Niko said, throwing off his bedsheets and crawling in.

"Goodnight, Niko."

"Toge-priiii!" Togepi shouted cheerfully.

A few hours later—or, in Niko's mind, only a matter of minutes—he felt Lauren enter the bed as well, laying down next to him. He didn't budge, as he was too tired to converse, but he felt her body lean up against his; her arms wrapping around him; her chest pressed against his back.

* * *

"Welcome to the second day of the Lily of the Valley Pokémon Conference! I'm your host, President Colton Goodshow, and today we have _two_ rounds of hot battles for you all! In the first half of the day, we will have contestants duke it out in double battles! That's right—two-on-two battles to decide the Top 32 trainers moving on. Then, in the third round, all battles will be three-on-three battles, which will decide the Top 16! Like always, the battles today will be held in all four stadiums.

"Now, please give a round of applause for our first matchup. From Canalave City we have Lauren! And her opponent, from Sunyshore City, we have Samuel!"

Lauren approached the battlefield to face her opponent—a young black-haired, dark-skinned young man. Once the ref explained the rules, both trainers summoned their pair of pokémon:

"Kangaskhan, marowak, I choose you!" Samuel shouted.

"Haunter, infernape, let's go!" Lauren commanded. "Haunter, hypnosis on marowak! Infernape, mach punch on kangaskhan!"

Haunter emitted red rings from his eyes in an attempt to put the bone keeper pokémon to sleep. Meanwhile, infernape burst forward, running at the parent pokémon with a glowing white fist. Kangaskhan responded with its own mega punch, forcing an impactful stalemate between the two, as their fists met on Samuel's end of the field. The collision sent shock waves through the battlefield, evidently just as marowak fell asleep.

"Now, haunter, use dream eater! Infernape, close combat!"

"Kangaskhan, use thrash!" Samuel shouted. Both the parent and monkey pokémon attacked one another, throwing punches, kicks, and slashes at each other. "Now, outrage!" The normal type kept thrashing at infernape, only now with far more power to it. He eventually knocked infernape to the ground, who was briefly unable to move from the shock of the attack.

"Haunter, keep it up!" Lauren said, quickly looking from pokémon to pokémon. Once she realized infernape was in trouble, she turned back to the gas pokémon, who nodded and sent a dark pulse at kangaskhan's side, causing it to stumble briefly. "Now, use dark pulse on marowak! Infernape, flare blitz on kangaskhan!"

Infernape's body burst into flames as she jumped back on her feet and charged at her opponent, slamming into the normal type's upper chest—just above its pouch—and pressing on her opponent, using the flames to keep her briefly suspended in motion. Infernape then backed off before rushing forward and slamming a mach punch into kangaskhan's face, knocking the parent pokémon to the ground.

Meanwhile, haunter launched a dark nexus of energy at marowak, who was still somehow asleep. Before he could use a second dream eater, marowak woke back up, dazed and confused by what or where it was.

"Marowak! Finally!" Samuel shouted. "Use rock slide!"

Marowak summoned a barrage of rocks to launch at haunter, who attempted to deflect them using dark pulse. However, there were too many, and so when haunter finally got hit by a few, infernape leapt across the field and used close combat to break the rest of the rocks, ending the attack.

"Great job!" Lauren shouted with a smile. "Now let's win this! Haunter, dark pulse on marowak! Infernape, mach punch on kangaskhan!"

Haunter shot one of his disconnected hands forward to release dark pulse, which was met with bonemerang, an attack intended to deflect the move. Not giving up, haunter shot another dark pulse, only to be met with yet another bonemerang. Now a little frustrated, haunter shot both of his hands forward and used a double dark pulse, which hit marowak directly, launching the ground type clean across the field.

Meanwhile, infernape charged at her opponent, ready to slam a mach punch and end the match. Kangaskhan attempted to sucker punch the move, but mach punch was quicker, and infernape used the force of the attack to send the parent pokémon across the field and towards Samuel's feet, ending the match.

"Marowak and kangaskhan are both unable to battle, infernape and haunter win! The victory goes to Lauren from Canalave City!"

Lauren jumped for joy as they were declared the winners. She quickly thanked her pokémon and returned them, eagerly walking out of the battlefield to meet up with her friends to watch Ian's match in one of the smaller stadiums.

"And now we have Ian from Violet City in Johto versus May from Celestic Town!" The announcer declared. Moments later, the battle was beginning, with Ian using pikachu and his newly evolved bastiodon to challenge May's bibarel and ambipom. Despite not looking too strong, the bibarel was able to do a severe amount of damage to bastiodon before falling to pikachu's thunderbolt. Ambipom fell shortly afterwards to bastiodon's flash cannon, which engulfed the entire field in a bright shining light. Ian was then declared the winner, roughly ten minutes into the match.

Just as they were about to leave to go to another small stadium for Niko's battle, they caught sight of Hunter entering the battlefield. Since Niko's match wasn't for another half hour, he convinced them all to stay and watch.

As soon as the referee explained the rules of the match, Hunter sent out his toxicroak and a drapion to challenge his opponent's banette and omastar. Niko wasn't surprised by how quickly toxicroak moved, but Jake, Fay, and his parents certainly were. They watched the amphibious-like pokémon quickly take down omastar while drapion dealt with banette from afar. Oddly enough, the purple and black scorpion's movements and battle style reminded Niko of Hunter J's drapion. Thinking nothing of it, he continued watching for a few more seconds until Hunter was declared the winner—in merely a couple of minutes.

"Wow…that guy is something." Jake commented as they all got up to migrate to another stadium. "Niko, you really weren't kidding. I hope, for your sake, that you don't have to battle him."

"Yeah, same here!" Niko said, eyes wide open. "That's what I've been saying! I've fought that same toxicroak twice now, and each time it kicks my ass!"

"And we can see why now…" Fay added. "But I think, with your strongest pokémon assembled, you could beat Hunter. Or at least his toxicroak."

Niko nodded as they continued walking towards the nearest small stadium. Fortunately, they arrived just in time for Niko's battle, and so he said farewell to the rest of the group as they walked up a story or two to get good seating. He then turned to the tunnel and, breathing deeply, walked through it and onto the battlefield.

"And now, for our next match, we have Orin from Floaroma Town versus Niko from Pallet Town!"

Orin sent out a vibrava and jumpluff—both pokémon Niko has dealt with before. In response, he summoned aggron and prinplup. The referee then shouted "begin!" and the four pokémon began battling.

"Aggron, iron head on vibrava! Prinplup, metal claw on jumpluff!" Niko commanded. Orin directed his pokémon to use dragonbreath and bullet seed on their respective targets. Aggron, whose head was lowered and now glowing a bright gray color, ran straight through the dragonbreath and slammed into the dragon type, knocking it backwards and off of its feet. Meanwhile, prinplup crossed his flippers—which were now glowing a bright gray color as well—to block the bullet seed as he ran forward. Once he got close enough, he uncrossed the flippers, slashing at jumpluff with an unexpected amount of power. "Great, prinplup! Now use peck!"

Prinplup's beak started glowing white and—unexpectedly—enlarging. Prinplup then slammed the beak down on jumpluff, forcing it into the ground.

"Jumpluff, stun spore!" Orin commanded. The cottonweed pokémon shook the cotton balls it had for arms wildly, emitting a yellow dust from them that stunned the penguin. "Vibrava, earthquake!"

"Aggron, use harden!" Niko shouted, realizing that if earthquake was successful, it would severely harm the iron armor pokémon. Aggron braced himself for the impact, trying to hold himself together. "You're doing great, buddy! Keep it up! Don't give up!" He shouted before turning to prinplup, who was being pounded with rounds of bullet seed. Before he could say anything, aggron turned his attention to jumpluff, charging across the field and spinning around, slamming his tail into jumpluff and launching it into the wall behind Orin, just below the stands.

"Jumpluff is unable to battle!" The referee declared.

"Great job, aggron! Niko shouted happily. However, as aggron turned to express his own pleasure, he felt a purple and orange beam of energy hit him in the face, knocking it backwards and causing him to stumble slightly. "Use iron head! Prinplup…" Niko continued, turning to his penguin, who was slowly recovering from the stun spore. "Let's go, buddy. Use water pulse!"

Prinplup waited for aggron to attack first, ramming his head into vibrava and ignoring the third dragonbreath. Aggron then got out of the way as prinplup ran up and tossed a water pulse several yards away at vibrava, who shot it in midair with dragonbreath before using earthquake a second time.

Niko grit his teeth. _This might be difficult. Wait…_ "Prinplup, run up aggron's back!" Niko said, realizing he was making these commands in the midst of an earthquake on the battlefield. Prinplup obliged, trying to run across the field without stumbling or tripping, and eventually jumped onto aggron's back. The penguin then ran up before jumping off of the steel type's head. Aggron had lowered his head just before and then shot it back up, giving prinplup momentum to add to his jump.

Prinplup soared through the air, extending his flippers as if he was actually flying. He then launched a water pulse from directly above vibrava, still occupied with defeating aggron using earthquake. The pulse hit vibrava on the head, forcing it to stop the earthquake and look upwards. All the vibration pokémon saw was prinplup diving directly downwards, his beak elongated and glowing white. Prinplup crashed on top of vibrava, leaping off immediately following impact. Vibrava didn't get back up. Neither did aggron, who collapsed from exhaustion just after prinplup leapt into the air.

"Aggron and vibrava are both unable to battle! Yet, since prinplup is still standing, the victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!" The referee declared.

Niko ran onto the field, picking prinplup up and embracing him tightly before moving over to aggron, who was slowly getting back up. "You both did really great today. I'm not just proud of you two individually, but you both stepped up and acted like a team. Aggron, especially you. The iron tail to jumpluff may have saved the match for us. And prinplup…was that a new move I just saw?" Prinplup nodded, albeit still uncertain. "I'll ask Fay or JJ if they know. Either way, great job! Let's keep it up!"

The group all went to lunch in the dining hall below the main stadium, discussing the matches of the day thus far. There, Niko learned from Fay that prinplup had mastered the move drill peck, even if by accident. He says it common for pokémon who know peck to spontaneously use drill peck after a while of practicing the peck move.

"It's sort of like an upgrade, like with ember to flamethrower, or thundershock to thunderbolt. That sort of thing."

"Gotcha. Thanks, Fay." Niko said appreciatively. Just as he finished saying that—and finishing his meal—the monitors all lit up to show the matchups for the third round. Niko, Ian, and Lauren all got up out of their seats to go view the match. Niko immediately saw Hunter's profile next to another unfamiliar trainer, which elated him. He too was against some stranger in dress clothes and thin-rimmed glasses.

However, Lauren and Ian would be facing each other in the next round.

The two trainers turned to each other, smiling. Lauren then reached her hand out and shook Ian's.

"May the best man—"

"—or woman—"

"Win." They both said, breaking the handshake.


	54. Throwing punches

**Episode 54: Throwing punches**

"Welcome, one and all, to the third round of the Lily of the Valley Pokémon Conference! As always, I am your host, Colton Goodshow, and we continue the second day of battling with our three-on-three matchups! We are down to the final 32 trainers—who will come out victorious? Whose league career will end today? Tune in to find out!"

Niko kissed Lauren on the forehead as they stood at the entrance to the battlefield. It was a grassy field this time, unlike previous matches, all of which have been standard dirt battlefields. She was facing their mutual friend Ian, and she felt nervous. Ian wasn't a push-over—his pokémon looked strong, if her brief glance at some of his battles were an indication of anything. But all the same, she believed that she could win and proceed on to the next round, hopefully alongside Niko.

"Best of luck, alright? You can do this." Niko said with a smile, holding onto her shoulders.

"Thanks. I think we can win this. See you later!" Lauren said before turning and walking down the tunnel to the battlefield while Niko looked on.

"And now we have Ian from Violet City versus Lauren from Canalave City!" The announcer shouted. They were competing in one of the smaller stadiums. Niko's battle would be in the main stadium a couple battles later.

Lauren and Ian smiled at one another as they anticipated the commencement of the battle. Once the referee explained the rules of the match, it was on.

"Pikachu, let's go!" Ian shouted, his electric mouse jumping onto the field in front of him.

"Glaceon, I choose you!" Lauren commanded. _Pikachu, huh? I think we got this_. "Use icy wind!"

"Quick attack!" Ian directed. Pikachu burst forward, a trail of white light racing behind it. Even though the icy wind slowed down the electric mouse, he managed to slam into glaceon, disrupting the icy wind and knocking them both to the ground. "Use thunderbolt!"

"Ice fang!" Lauren shouted. Glaceon lurched her head upwards and bit down on pikachu's side, causing the mouse to lose focus and not attack. "Now, icy wind!"

"Pikachu, thunderbolt! Focus!" Ian shouted. Both attacks went off simultaneously, with glaceon still holding on with her ice-coated fangs. Both pokémon cried out in pain from the other's attacks. Glaceon then let go, instead focusing her energy on strengthening icy wind. It was enough to force pikachu to get lower to the ground before bursting forward with quick attack. Just as the mouse was about to strike glaceon, it jumped into the air and, on Ian's command, used iron tail.

The steel-coated tail slammed down on glaceon's head. The ice type reeled a little before grabbing pikachu's tail with her teeth and biting down hard on it. Glaceon then spun pikachu through the air and tossed it across the field. The mouse landed on the grass and rolled a little before stopping.

"Glaceon, icy wind!" Lauren commanded loudly. As soon as an icy gale was churning across the field, glaceon burst forward with quick attack, hitting the electric type and knocking it further backwards.

"Iron tail!" Ian shouted. Pikachu dodged another quick attack before leaping back onto its feet with its tail and then spinning forward to land an iron tail on glaceon's head once again. This time, however, the attack missed, and glaceon used quick attack a third time to knock pikachu back to the ground.

"Finish it off with ice fang!" Lauren shouted. Glaceon opened her maw and sank her ice-cold fangs into pikachu, defeating the mouse pokémon.

"Pikachu is unable to battle, glaceon wins! Ian will send out his second pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Pikachu, return. You did a great job, buddy. Garchomp, I choose you!"

"Why garchomp?" JJ asked. "Isn't that a dragon and ground type?" Fay nodded, as he owned garchomp's basic stage, gible. "Then why is he using it against a glaceon?" Fay only replied with a shrug, saying that Ian probably has some quick up his sleeve. Plus, glaceon is exhausted from her battle with pikachu, so it should be an easy pick off.

"Glaceon, icy wind!" Lauren shouted, well aware of her situation. Garchomp braced itself for the attack, quickly taking a knee just as pikachu had done before. Then, without Ian commanding it, the land shark pokémon burst forward in a flurry of motion, slamming into glaceon and knocking her immediately to the ground. "Woah! What was that!?"

"Dragon rush." Ian said with a wink. "It's a pretty good move. Garchomp already knew that he needed to use that move first, so I didn't have to say much. Now, garchomp, use fire fang!"

"Glaceon, dodge with quick attack!" Lauren commanded. Luckily, glaceon was able to move out of the way, causing garchomp to abruptly stop his attack only feet from the grass below. "Now, ice fang!" Glaceon obliged, lurching to the right and biting down on garchomp's tail, feeling the rough skin underneath. She refused to let go, no matter how difficult it was to hold on. Eventually garchomp shot directly into the air in an effort to force glaceon to let go. Seeing the strategy the dragon type was going with, glaceon let go of garchomp's tail, falling a couple dozen feet to the ground and landing on the grass, albeit feeling the shock of the fall in her legs. Garchomp then dove back down to use dragon rush, slamming into glaceon.

"Glaceon is unable to battle, garchomp wins! Lauren will send out her second pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Glaceon, return. You did great. Infernape, I choose you!" _Let's hope you'll be enough to take out garchomp._ "Use close combat!"

"Garchomp, dragon claw!" Ian directed, and the two pokémon quickly engaged in battle, slashing, punching, and kicking one another. Infernape, fresh from her earlier battle with marowak and kangaskhan, was moving relatively fast, not letting garchomp get a hit in edgewise. It made Lauren proud of her decision to have infernape train in close combat with both blaziken and staraptor on occasion. As a pokémon capable of flying, garchomp was in some ways a combination of the two.

"Now, mach punch!" Lauren said, mockingly punching the air in front of her, similar to how Niko has before. The fire monkey found a weak spot—the chest—and slammed a high-speed fist into garchomp, sending the land shark across the field. "Now, flame wheel!"

Infernape cried out, leaping forward into a wheel of fire and rushing toward garchomp. The dragon type was prepared to used dragon rush. Moments later both pokémon collided in the middle of the field, sending a shockwave through the stadium. A cloud of dust erupted in the middle, leaving both garchomp and infernape laying there. Both slowly managed to get back up, ready to continue.

"Infernape, can you do this?" Lauren asked. The flame pokémon turned to her and nodded, throwing a thumb up in response, which elicited a determined smile from Lauren. "Alright, then. Let's go! Use flare blitz!"

"Garchomp, dragon claw!" Ian shouted. Infernape coated herself in fire and burst forward towards her opponent, whose long claws were emitting a draconic purple glow. Garchomp slashed as his opponent, but infernape ducked before slamming into garchomp's torso with enough energy to launch the land shark into the air, which is exactly what she did. "Dragon rush!"

"Dodge and use mach punch!" Lauren commanded. Infernape quickly shifted to the left, ignoring her exhaustion, and slammed a fist into garchomp's head, decisively knocking the land shark to the ground. Moments later, she too fell.

"Garchomp and infernape are both unable to battle! Ian and Lauren will now send out their third and final pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Bastiodon, I choose you" Ian shouted.

"Infernape, return. You did so well! But now you need to rest up. Slowking, you're up!" She shouted, summoning the royal pokémon. "It's up to you and me now, slowking. If we can beat bastiodon, then we win the match, alright?" Slowking nodded slowly, perfectly understanding the stakes of the match. "Use water pulse!"

"Flash cannon!" Ian commanded.

"Quick! Close your eyes and move to the left!" Lauren shouted. Slowking nodded, spinning to his left and closing his eyes to prevent himself from blindness from the attack. Lauren too closed her eyes, the bright light too much for her as well. "Now, water pulse!"

Slowking conjured an orb of water from the gem on his shell and fired it across the field at bastiodon, who blocked it with its head-shield and returned with an ancientpower.

"Zen headbutt!" Lauren directed. Slowking lowered his head and burst forward, breaking through the ancientpower and slamming headfirst into bastiodon. Oddly enough, slowking didn't feel any pain from doing so, despite the hard exterior of the shield. "Now, jump and use water pulse!"

"Slowwwww…." Slowking said, jumping a few inches in the air and tossing a water pulse behind bastiodon, where the shield pokémon was much weaker. The attack elicited a cry from bastiodon, who tried retaliating with an attack called metal burst, but slowking evaded at the last moment, blocking the attack with his shell and then returning the attack with another zen headbutt.

"Bastiodon, flash cannon!" Ian shouted. The headbutt collided with the steely beam of light, slowing the royal pokémon down but not disrupting his attack. Slowking slammed into bastiodon's shield and, at the last moment, launched a quick water pulse up close, splashing water everywhere.

Slowking raised his head back up to observe the damage. Bastiodon was now laying on the ground. It tried to get back up, but albeit slowly. Eventually, it collapsed a second time out of exhaustion.

"Bastiodon is unable to battle, slowking is the winner! The victory goes to Lauren from Canalave City!" The referee declared, throwing a white flag in the air in Lauren's direction.

"Yes! Slowking! We did it!" Lauren said, rushing onto the damaged grass field to embrace the royal pokémon. "I'm so proud of you. You hardly took any hits!" Slowking nodded, smiling warmly as he embraced his trainer, also feeling the euphoria of victory.

Lauren found Niko and their friends and family waiting for her. She ran up and jumped into his waiting arms. "You did so great, Lauren." He whispered into her ear before kissing her. When she was let go she noticed Ian had joined them. He looked a little disappointed, but wore a smile all the same.

"That was a great battle, Lauren. If I wanted to lose to anyone, I'd rather it be you or Niko. So…thanks." He said, shaking her hand.

"Same here. Your garchomp really is tough." She commented. The group then went off to the stadium Niko was competing in, as his battle was only a couple matches away.

As they entered and sat down in the stands, they managed to catch the second half of Hunter's battle against a trainer from Sootopolis City in Hoenn. Hunter had successfully defeated the trainer's linoone and spiritomb single-handedly, and was now using honchkrow to fight the trainer's third pokémon—bronzong. After a while, it seemed like the battle was going nowhere, so Hunter swapped honchkrow out for an arcanine and completely swept the team.

Niko gulped a little. It was clear to him that Hunter was not only a juggernaut of a trainer; he was also quite versatile, and seemed to be prepared for any possible contingency. If he ever hoped to get past the sheer power of Hunter's pokémon, he would have to somehow get around that to win.

Before he knew it, it was finally his turn. After getting out of his seat and saying bye to Lauren, he proceeded downstairs to the ground level, passing Hunter along the way, and entered into the tunnel that led to the stadium.

"And now we have Niko from Pallet Town and Tom from Saffron City, both in Kanto!" Colton Goodshow announced. The referee then explained the rules of the match, as usual, and quickly the battle got started.

"Chansey, I choose you!" Tom shouted.

"Magneton, let's go! Niko directed. "Use magnet bomb!" He shouted, partly because he wanted to see the move in an official battle, and now necessarily in practice. Magneton's individual magnets began to spark blue electricity and then immediately flash a light blue color. It then fired off a barrage of light blue orbs at chansey, who retaliated with egg bomb. She hurled eggs out of the small pouch on her stomach, blowing up most of the individual magnet bombs and therefore minimizing the damage that she took. Niko then followed up with thunderbolt and sonicboom in an attempt to combine the two. It passed off as a high-speed bolt of lightning that struck chansey and toppled her over.

"Now, magneton, let's try to focus now. Use zap cannon!" Niko shouted. As it took some time for chansey to get back on her feet, magneton took its time to aim, as zap cannon was a powerful, but wildly inaccurate move. Magneton knew this, and secretly held doubts about it, but trusted Niko more than anyone else. Niko gave him a chance to become strong, back in Kanto and Johto. He put more faith in magneton than anyone else.

And it turned out to be correct. Magneton launched the zap cannon, which sent rippling shock waves throughout the stadium. The attack struck chansey, not only toppling it over, but dragging it across the ground, ripping up grass in its wake.

"Chansey is unable to battle, magneton wins! Tom will now send out his next pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Magmar, I choose you" Tom shouted. "Use flamethrower!"

"Block with sonicboom!" Niko called out. Magneton obliged, albeit slowly, as it was tired from the zap cannon, a move that took an enormous amount of energy to use. Nonetheless, magneton was able to block the attack, with sonicboom ripping through the jet of fire, splitting it off into two opposite directions. "Now, use thunderbolt!"

"Fire punch, magmar!" Tom commanded. Magmar's fist lit up with fire as it ran forward and crashed it into the thunderbolt, blocking the move and absorbing some of its energy, brightening the fistful of fire. "Now, punch forward with flamethrower!"

Magmar thrust its fist forward and blew on the fist with flamethrower. The resulting jet of fire seemed to be far more powerful—and far hotter—than the previous two attacks. Magneton, caught off guard, was hit by the attack and knocked backwards.

"Now use sunny day!" Tom commanded. Like with cherrim in a previous match, the sun lighting up the battlefield began to brighten a little. The flames on magmar's body got slightly larger, indicating that the move strengthened fire type moves. "Now, flamethrower!"

"Magneton, use sonicboom!" Niko shouted. He had hoped that, just like last time, the sonicboom could work to redirect the flamethrower. He quickly discovered how wrong he was—the jet of fire—now blue—burst through the sonicboom and directly hit magneton, causing the trio of magnets to fly around wildly before collapsing in the grass below.

"Magneton is unable to battle, magmar wins! Niko will now send out his second pokémon!"

"Hitmonchan, you're up!" Niko shouted. "Let's start off with mega punch!"

"Fire punch!" Tom declared. Both pokémon rushed into the middle of the burnt and destroyed field to engage in close combat. Hitmonchan hit first, slamming a carefully directed mega punch right across magmar's face. Surprisingly, the fire type didn't seem nearly as effected. Hitmonchan then continued throwing punches and dodging them in return, mostly fire punches from magmar. The punching pokémon was well aware of not using fire punch as well, since it wouldn't have done much damage.

After a while, Niko realized he needed to end this—magmar was certainly taking damage, but so was hitmonchan, and the former wasn't about to give up. "Hitmonchan, sky uppercut!"

"Flamethrower!" Tom shouted back. Hitmonchan's right glove began to glow a bright gray color and, just as he was about to uppercut magmar, the spitfire pokémon blew out a powerful jet of hot blue fire. Hitmonchan reflexively brought up his left glove to protect his face while he rushed in and uppercut magmar, launching it into the air.

Magmar crashed into the ground several feet away, close to Tom. As it tried to get back up, reeling from the attack, hitmonchan rushed down the burnt field and used mega punch one more time to keep the fire type down.

"Magmar is unable to battle, hitmonchan is the winner! Tom will now send out his final pokémon!" The ref declared.

"Swampert, I choose you!" Tom directed. "Muddy water!"

"Counter with thunderpunch!" Niko shouted. As soon as he saw the sparks of electricity hit the brown-colored water manipulated by swampert did he realize his mistake. The attack itself wasn't immune to thunderpunch, no. It reacted just how many ordinary water would when it came into contact with electricity—it exploded. Everywhere.

Hitmonchan was launched backwards, nearly crashing in Niko. Meanwhile, swampert was in a fine condition. Niko grit his teeth—what a stupid mistake to make. "Hitmonchan, can you get up?"

The punching pokémon nodded, slowly standing back up. Niko then began to see how exhausted the fighting type actually was. He commanded hitmonchan to use mega punch, and the punching pokémon rushed into the fray, red gloves up, both glowing white as he charged up power. Swampert stood perfectly still, ready for just about anything. As soon as hitmonchan got within range, he charged forward faster and managed to land a single mega punch on the mud fish pokémon.

The second, however, swampert dodged. The giant water type then slammed its own fist into hitmonchan's side, in a motion that resembled a hammer. Hitmonchan crumbled to the ground in defeat.

"Hitmonchan is unable to battle, swampert is the winner! Niko will now send out his final pokémon!" The ref declared.

For Niko, the final choice was easy. Swampert had one disadvantage, and he expected to exploit it. "Torterra, I choose you!" He shouted as he summoned the continent pokémon. "Let's do this, buddy. Let's go to the top 16. Use razor leaf!"

"Swampert, ice beam!" Tom shouted. The mud fish pokémon opened its maw and unleashed a powerful stream of ice that nearly hit torterra, had the leaves not gotten in the way. To further deflect the attack, torterra quickly conjured an energy ball and launched it forward to collide with the ice beam, momentarily halting it.

"Now, use earthquake!" Niko shouted.

"Protect!" Tom commanded. Swampert conjured a light protective shield around itself while the ground shook underneath it. "Now, follow up with ice beam!"

"Earthquake again!" Niko commanded, hoping to knock swampert off of its feet. Somehow, it worked. The mud fish stumbled slightly while using ice beam, which briefly redirected the attack towards torterra's right. "Now, energy ball!"

Torterra roared out, shaking the field with his might, as he conjured a larger energy ball than usual and launched it directly at swampert, who took the hit and fell to one knee, reeling from the attack.

"Razor leaf!" Niko called out. Torterra attempted once more to hit with razor leaf, but swampert repelled it with muddy water, which seemed to work. However, neither it nor Tom expected another energy ball to break through the water and hit swampert, knocking it onto its back. "Now, finish it off with razor leaf!" Niko commanded passionately, feeling in-sync with torterra as he issued the command; feeling the energy and power of his tortoise-like pokémon. The leaves surrounded swampert before slashing at the mud fish. Then they all fell to the ground, the light wind carrying them to the floor of the battlefield.

"Swampert is unable to battle, torterra wins! The victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!"

"Torterra!" Niko shouted as he ran over to the continent pokémon and looked him in the eye. "We're moving on, buddy. We're on our way to the top 16. That's when we get to use full teams. And you bet I'm including you in there. Great job." He said as he rubbed the top of torterra's head. The tortoise growled happily.

With battles being over for the day, the group set off for the dining hall underneath the stadiums to eat. There, like usual, they discussed the day's events. They all seemed incredibly happy that Niko and Lauren made it to the top 16.

"Do you think you'll have to battle against Lauren soon?" Niko's Dad asked as he sat across from his son. As soon as he finished the question, Niko could briefly hear a deep, guttural cough emit from his father, but thought nothing of it.

"I really hope not." He said, turning to Lauren sitting next to him. "But if we both continue to do well, then eventually we'll probably have to face one another."

"Uh…Niko…" JJ said, looking up at the monitor in front of him, and behind Niko and Lauren. They both turned around to notice that President Goodshow was announcing the eight matchups for the fourth round. The couple got up and walked over to see where they were.

In the final matchup, Niko and Lauren were to battle one another.


	55. All is fair in love and battle

**Episode 55: All is fair in love and battle**

Niko sat in their suite once again that night. He wanted some alone time before heading to bed once again, and he felt that Lauren wanted it as well. He knew that eventually he might have to battle his girlfriend in the Pokémon League, but he didn't expect it _this_ soon. He had hoped that he might challenge her in the top 8, or semifinals. And, of course, he hoped to win.

To be sure, Niko still wanted to win. He wanted to go as far as he could. He also knew that Lauren felt the same. He knew that love wouldn't be a barrier on her success, and he largely felt the same.

In fact, that's one of the things he liked about her.

He pondered what team he wanted to use. He knew Lauren only had six pokémon, and he knew exactly how all of them operated, having watched them all in battles previous. The only one he knew the least about was slowking, but he felt that his pokémon had the skill to match the royal pokémon. And so, the choice wasn't very hard—he was going with the pokémon he caught and raised in Sinnoh. Which left one more unknown left: who would be his sixth?

Meanwhile, Lauren sat in the courtyard, resting on the short wall surrounding one of the fountains. She was sitting largely alone, admiring the trimmed hedges that looked like different pokémon—none that she seemed to recognize, anyway. Like Niko, she was pondering the battle the following morning. She wanted to win, more than anything, but felt like the loss would hurt Niko, and would be harder for her to deal with than if she was battling against a complete stranger.

 _Niko has worked so hard over the years, and a placement in the top 16, after all this time, might make him feel inadequate. I don't want to be the person that does that to him. But if I want to keep going, and improve for myself, then I have to beat him. I'd rather deal with the fallout of him losing then having to deal with not trying my very best. We were rivals at first, and even though we're a couple, and I might love him, we are still rivals, through and through, and if I want to be a better trainer and battler, I need to defeat someone as experienced as Niko_.

She felt better as she organized her thoughts more coherently.

JJ and Brittany sat in the lounge with Ian, Fay, and Jake. They all agreed to give Niko and Lauren some alone time to relax before the battle. Having been in tense, high-stakes league situations with Niko before, they all knew that he needed time to collect his thoughts, and this was best done the night before.

"You two have travelled with them," Fay began. "who do you think will win?"

"Honestly, it's anyone's game. They're both very strong competitors, I think." JJ commented, turning to Brittany for her opinion.

"Having battled Lauren on several occasions in contests, and having seen Niko over the years, I actually have to agree with JJ. It's going to be intense."

"Do you think their relationship will survive it?" Jake inquired. "Because, if we're being honest here, Niko doesn't take losing well sometimes."

"He takes it better than he used to." Brittany said in her friend's defense. "But that's a fair point. I think their relationship will hold. Because there's always other Pokémon Leagues to enter. I personally wish they weren't battling each other _now_ , of all times. I feel like they're both more deserving of at least top 8."

"Agreed." JJ said.

Fay nodded as well. "Lauren is very good. She's managed to put down pokémon that she normally wouldn't have an advantage against. Like, Ian's garchomp for example. No offense." He said, adding the disclaimer in an earnest way.

Ian dismissed it. "None taken. I was also impressed. And after the battle I was talking with garchomp about it, and he expressed surprise as well. That, and his ability to beat glaceon. We surprised ourselves there."

"Well, glaceon hasn't been with Lauren as long as garchomp's been with you." Brittany added with Ian's nod of agreement. "Either way, I'm oddly excited for tomorrow. And nervous. Very nervous."

The others voiced their agreement, and continued on to other subjects before heading off to bed.

* * *

The seven other battles went by at an excruciatingly slow pace, or at least that's how it felt for Lauren and Niko. They both watched the battles in the main stadium with anxiety. Not that they were that nervous about their battle. More like they wanted to get it started, then they would both feel more comfortable and in their environment.

The only battle that they even remotely paid attention to was Hunter's Like with previous battles, he steamrolled his opponent, only losing a single pokémon—his lucario—after the aura pokémon knocked out half of his opponent's team. He was now in the mix for the quarterfinals, which worried Niko and Lauren, since whoever won their match might have to face him down the road, and hopefully not in the quarterfinals.

Eventually, the battle before theirs was beginning to wrap up, with each trainer having one fresh pokémon each. They both got up, nodding farewell to their friends and Niko's family before walking out of the stands and down the stairs. Once they reached the bottom, they would part ways to enter the battlefield from opposite ends. Niko volunteered to go to the opposite end, on the other side of the stadium. Before he did, he turned and looked down at Lauren.

In that moment, he noticed everything about her—her short figure; her beautiful dark eyes; her seemingly flawless complexion; her soft blue and purple-striped sweater; and her blue hair that looked like waves in motion when she pushed it behind her head to lay in stasis over her back.

"Good luck." Lauren finally said.

"Good luck to you, too." Niko said softly, a smile slowly creeping onto his face. He then turned to leave.

"Love you." Lauren said, but soft enough that Niko couldn't hear her.

"And now for our final match of the round! We have Niko from Pallet Town and Lauren from Canalave City!" Colton Goodshow announced as the couple appeared on opposite ends of the field. "We have seen some great battles from these two so far, so I'm hoping just as much as you all are that they'll give us a fiery, passionate match here as well!"

Niko and Lauren both blushed as they heard President Goodshow's odd choice of words. The referee then began explaining the rules, but neither of them paid attention. Their only focus was on each other. In that moment, nothing else seemed to matter.

Then, it began.

"Yanmega, I choose you!"

"Lopunny, let's go!"

"Let's start off with sonicboom!" Niko called out. Yanmega's body began to vibrate rapidly before the darner pokémon let loose a wave of sonic energy from his tail. Lopunny jumped into the air at the last second to use bounce, soaring high above the rocky battlefield that they stood on.

"Lopunny, bounce!" Lauren shouted. The rabbit kicked one foot out and slammed it into yanmega, bringing both of them down to the ground.

"Ancientpower!" Niko directed. Yanmega conjured rocks from under the ground and crashed them against lopunny from left and right, quickly overwhelming the rabbit. "Now, double team!"

"Lopunny, thunderpunch!"

The rabbit danced around Niko's end of the field, punching and kicking each duplicate all while dodging sonicbooms from each of them. As she was about to hit the real yanmega, a sonicboom slammed into her chest, launching her back across the field. Lopunny hit a rock and collapsed onto the ground, breathing hard.

"Yanmega, sonicboom again!" Niko shouted. He wanted yanmega to keep his distance from lopunny, knowing full well that the rabbit knew thunderpunch, and was very adept at using it. The darner pokémon once more conjured a wave of sonic energy, charging across the field before hitting lopunny against the rock. The sonicboom broke shattered the rock behind her, leaving lopunny laying in a heap of smaller rocks.

Now believing that he had this wrapped up, Niko commanded yanmega to use wing attack. The bug type's wings began to glow white as he burst forward towards lopunny.

"Thunderpunch!" Lauren shouted. The two pokémon met on her end of the field. As soon as yanmega slashed a lopunny with his wings, the electrified fist slammed against his side, causing him to spin wildly to the right, eventually crashing into a rock of his own. Lopunny tried to get back up, but collapsed shortly after attempting to. Yanmega fared similarly.

"Yanmega and lopunny are both unable to battle! Niko and Lauren will now send out their second pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Glaceon, I choose you!" Lauren shouted.

"Rampardos, let's go!" Niko directed. Now, he knew he had the advantage. "Flamethrower!"

"Of course he'll start with that. Glaceon, icy wind!" Lauren called out. She knew it would be an uphill battle against rampardos, a pokémon whose determination was impressive. But, she thought, if glaceon could do some damage to the dinosaur, then she had a way to get rid of him later.

The cold gale blew across the field, negating the flamethrower but hardly seeming to affect rampardos. Niko then commanded the dinosaur to use zen headbutt. Rampardos lowered his head, blue sparks crackling around it. He then charged forward, his powerful legs carrying him across the field. Glaceon stood her ground, ready to attack.

"Jump!" Lauren shouted. Glaceon waited for rampardos to get close enough before leaping into the air above the rock type and successfully landing on his back. "Now, ice fang!" glaceon then sank her fangs into rampardos, the ice-cold touch intending to do damage.

It did. Rampardos cried out wildly, moving around vigorously to shake glaceon off of him. It seemed to work, and as soon as glaceon was off rampardos let out a powerful jet of fire that engulfed glaceon. The ice type jumped back to get out of the flames, leaving only a burn mark on her shoulder. In retaliation, she attempted to create an icy wind, but rampardos—still hardly affected—charged forward and landed a zen headbutt on his opponent. Glaceon rolled across the dirt battlefield, the burn mark adding to the injury. She tried to get back up, was wasn't able to.

"Glaceon is unable to battle, rampardos wins! Lauren will send out her third pokémon!" The ref stated.

"Glaceon, return. You did great, even if it might not seem like it. Slowking, I choose you!" Lauren shouted, summoning her third pokémon of the match. _I think I can corner Niko here and get rampardos out of the way_.

Slowking and rampardos eyed one another, the latter pacing back and forth slowly in anticipation. It was slowking who taught him how to use zen headbutt, and for the past couple of weeks has acted as a mentor to the dinosaur. Niko wondered if he should substitute rampardos, but the rock type stayed in. He wanted this match.

"Rampardos, ancientpower!" Niko shouted.

"Slowking, nasty plot!" Lauren commanded. Slowking smirked a little, trying to come up with ways that he can win this match against his mentee. As ancient rocks were hurled in his direction, he skillfully dodged each one before conjuring a water pulse from the gem on his shell and launching it across the field, directly hitting rampardos. The dinosaur fell back, water splashing everywhere. He then spat out a jet of fire in anger. Lauren grinned. She wanted to see rampardos challenge slowking like this.

"Zen headbutt!" They both commanded. Slowking and rampardos lowered their head and charged at one another, just as slowking had taught rampardos when he was a cranidos. They met in the center of the battlefield and, as both of their heads (or shell) were as hard as steel, small shock waves erupted from the point of impact, breaking smaller, insignificant rocks on the field and kicking up dust.

Through the dust cloud slowking launched two more water pulses consecutively at rampardos, each hitting their intended target. The dinosaur stumbled backwards before using flamethrower once more, this time hitting slowking, who attempted to remain calm but found it difficult. Even slowking had to admit—rampardos _was_ strong.

"Rampardos, ancientpower!" Niko commanded, thrusting his hand out. The dinosaur commanded half a dozen rocks from out of the ground and launched all of them at once at slowking, each one hitting one after another. Slowking then stood still, panting a little before summoning another water pulse and launching it at rampardos, who deflected it with his tail this time—he was prepared.

"Slowking, swagger!" Lauren said, snapping her fingers. Slowking puffed out his chest and began emitting a red aura. Slowking looked at rampardos with an intimidating stare. Rampardos' eyes suddenly began to grow red, and he charged forward in a blinding rage. Slowking easily evaded the presumed headbutt attack before using one more water pulse, this time on rampardos' back. The attack causing the rock type to collapse onto the ground, breaking a sizeable rock in the process.

"Rampardos is unable to battle, slowking wins! Niko will send out his third pokémon!" The ref declared.

"Rampardos, you did great buddy. I'm really proud of you. Get some rest, alright?" Niko said, exchanging pokéballs. "Now, staraptor! I choose you!"

Lauren raised an eyebrow. Niko certainly wasn't going with type advantages here. "Fine by me, dear. Slowking, water pulse!"

"Staraptor, double team and aerial ace!" Niko commanded. The predator pokémon duplicated himself before launching down, one-by-one, at slowking. The royal pokémon attempted to attack each one with water pulse, but instead recalculated his moves, choosing to use nasty plot instead and take the aerial ace, knowing it was inevitable. Staraptor landed the attack, but as he was rising back into the air, he took a water pulse to the left wing, which caused him to spin out of control and involuntarily dive towards the ground. "Use aerial ace! Gather yourself, staraptor!" Niko called out.

Staraptor nodded, trying to regain control of his damp wing. After vigorously flapping around, he got back in control of his devices and burst forward towards slowking, white tendrils emanating from his beak. Once more, the attack hit before slowking could respond. However, this time the royal pokémon grabbed onto staraptor's right talon, spinning around and slamming the flying type into the ground.

"Close combat!" Niko shouted. He knew the attack might not be as effective, but it was the best move he could think of for the moment. Staraptor obliged, kicking slowking with his other talon, scratching the pink skin of the royal pokémon, and then leaping into the air—still chained by slowking, however—and slashing and slapping slowking with his wings and free talon. Then Niko commanded him to use double team, which gave him an opportunity to escape. "Finish slowking off with aerial ace!"

Staraptor rose high into the air before turning back around and diving at a downwards angle towards slowking. Niko briefly noticed it, but it almost looked like staraptor was emitting blue fire from his beak—the tendrils were no longer white, but bright light blue. Either way, the attack successfully landed, and slowking collapsed forward on the ground in defeat.

"Slowking is unable to battle, staraptor wins! Lauren will send out her fourth pokémon!" The ref declared.

"Haunter, I choose you!" Lauren shouted.

"Brace yourself, staraptor." Niko said with caution. "We know how haunter battles, and how strong he is. But we have to be on the lookout, alright?" Staraptor nodded, focusing solely on the ghost in front of him, smiling sinisterly back. "Now, aerial ace!"

"Haunter, dark pulse!" Lauren commanded. The gas pokémon thrust one of his disconnected hands forward and launched a dark nexus of energy at the predator pokémon, who took the hit but nevertheless landed his own attack. However, before staraptor could get back into the air, haunter spun back around and launched another dark pulse at the bird's back. Staraptor took the hit and crashed into the ground, close to Lauren. "Hypnosis!"

"Staraptor, close your eyes!" Niko said. Staraptor tried to, but as soon as he turned—even briefly—to face haunter, he absorbed the red rings emitting from the ghost type and collapsed into an unconscious state. Niko sighed heavily. He knows how much practice haunter has gotten with dream eater. Heck, he _taught_ haunter dream eater.

"Now, dream eater." Lauren said plainly, looking up at Niko with a sympathetic look. Her boyfriend simply nodded in response. Meanwhile, haunter broke into staraptor's subconscious, focusing solely on the thoughts and feelings of staraptor. Staraptor then twitched, tossed, and turned in his sleep, trying to get away from the now corrupted memories. Haunter then let go, breathing heavily. "Did it work?" Lauren asked, as if unsure. Haunter nodded, waiting for staraptor to wake up again. Lauren didn't want to hurt Niko's pokémon while they were asleep. To her, it didn't feel right to do that to _his_ pokémon.

Eventually, staraptor awoke in a confused state. Looking around, he noticed haunter motioning in hand for the bird to get up. Staraptor nodded, flapping his wings to gain altitude.

"Staraptor, let's win this. Use aerial ace!" Niko shouted.

"Dark pulse!" Lauren commanded. Haunter spun around to see staraptor diving directly at him. The gas pokémon then unleashed a dual dark pulse—one from each hand—before staraptor could reach him. The predator pokémon, unable to respond quickly enough, got hit by the attack and crashed down into the ground several feet below haunter.

"Staraptor is unable to battle, haunter wins! Niko will send out his fourth pokémon!" The ref declared.

"Luxray, you're up!" Niko shouted. "Use charge!"

Luxray nodded obligingly, quickly absorbing the electricity around him and storing it. Haunter then, on Lauren's command, launched a shadow punch at luxray, to which the gleam eyes pokémon quickly shifted to the right to evade and then started running forward.

"Use thunderfang!" Niko commanded. Luxray's teeth began to surge with electricity as he ran, directing the flow of electricity in his body to his mouth. Haunter launched several dark pulses at the electric type, who had dodged each one before leaping through the air and nearly landing on haunter. However, the gas pokémon then shot a shadow punch at luxray's stomach, knocking him out of midair and crashing into the ground. "Discharge instead!"

Luxray got up, albeit slowly, and released all of the stored electricity in every possible direction. Haunter attempted to cover himself by shooting out dark pulses, but it didn't work, and the gas pokémon floated to the ground, paralyzed.

"Haunter, return." Lauren said, pulling out haunter's pokéball and calling him back. As the referee announced the move, she pulled out another one. "Infernape, you're up!"

"Luxray, thunderfang!" Niko commanded. The gleam eyes pokémon grinned proudly—he had hoped that he could challenge infernape. Rushing forward, he bared his teeth, electricity surging and sparking outwards and inwards. Infernape then evaded the move by side-stepping luxray and slamming a well-placed mach punch into luxray's side, causing the gleam eyes pokémon to crash and roll along the ground.

"Infernape, flare blitz!" Lauren commanded. The flame pokémon coated herself in fire, burning brightly in the midday sun. Infernape then burst forward and slammed into luxray, knocking the gleam eyes pokémon over again. Luxray slowly got back up, growling at infernape. Throughout their journey, the two socialized sometimes, but not often. Yet luxray was always fascinated by infernape's abilities and strength, and wanted to match that. Of course, he never really let it be known—he wanted to continue training exclusively for himself and for Niko. But infernape kept him going when it started to get rough. Here, he wasn't giving up until the end.

"Discharge!" Niko cried out. Luxray roared to the stadium—and infernape—before unleashing another release of built-up electricity, spraying it everywhere. Sparks ran wildly in every conceivable direction, hitting infernape and nearly stunning the flame pokémon. Infernape did take a knee in exhaustion, both from the flare blitz and from the discharge. "Now, thunderfang!"

"Close combat!" Lauren commanded. Infernape charged forward as well, meeting luxray at the midway point between the two. He began punching and thrashing at luxray, who kept attempting to land a bite on the fire monkey. However, once infernape finally got a kick in—slamming her foot into luxray's side—the tall, black feline-like pokémon crumbled to the ground, struggling to get back up. "Finish with mach punch!"

"Luxray, don't give up here buddy! Use thunderfang!" Niko cried out. Infernape did land the attack successfully, but luxray lurched his head up and grabbed onto the monkey's arm once the attack hit, refusing to let go. Infernape started shaking her arm vigorously, but luxray wasn't giving in.

"Flare blitz!" Lauren commanded. Infernape lit herself on fire, overwhelming luxray in the process. The gleam eyes pokémon cried out from the fire pouring over his body. He eventually let go, falling to the ground in defeat.

"Luxray is unable to battle, infernape wins! Niko will send out his fifth pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Wow, Niko's in trouble…" JJ commented, looking at the board, which showed Niko with four black circles in place of defeated pokémon, and Lauren with only three. "She's got infernape, haunter, and roselia left—her three best pokémon."

"Niko can pull it through, though." Jake said with a hopeful tone. "He usually does. Plus, doesn't he have torterra left, too?"

"And prinplup." Brittany added. JJ nodded, realizing that the match might still be closer than he thought.

"Prinplup, I choose you!" Niko shouted. "We can do this, buddy. It's only infernape. We've had plenty of practice battles with her before, right?"

The penguin nodded with a determined expression. Niko then commanded him to use water pulse. Prinplup raised his flippers and conjured a glowing orb of water and shot it at infernape, who repelled the attack by jumping into a flame wheel, careening towards him.

"Bubblebeam!" Niko called out. Prinplup obeyed the order, opening his beak and blasting out a flurry of bubbles at infernape. The bubbles hardly did anything besides slow down infernape's onslaught. The flame pokémon then jumped out and charged at prinplup with a mach punch, to which the penguin responded with metal claw.

The two engaged in close combat for nearly a minute, exchanging blows with one another. Prinplup then found a weak spot in infernape's attack and used drill peck to hit her. Infernape fell backwards, panting a little from exhaustion. Prinplup then, on Niko's command, conjured a water pulse and launched it down on top of infernape, keeping the fire monkey down.

"Finish it off with drill peck!" Niko commanded. The attack hit, but it was by no means the finishing move. Infernape grabbed prinplup's beak and, with unusual strength, threw the penguin over her and into a nearby small rock. Prinplup quickly recovered and charged back at infernape, beak long and glowing white. Infernape tried to dodge and use close combat, but the attack didn't land—drill peck did. Infernape fell to the ground, landing on her face in defeat.

"Infernape is unable to battle, prinplup wins! Lauren will now send out her next pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Haunter, I choose you!" Lauren cried out, re-summoning her trusty ghost type. "Let's go! Use dark pulse!"

"Counter with water pulse!" Niko cried out. The two attacks collided in the center of the field, with water splashing everywhere. "Now, bubblebeam!" Prinplup attacked with stream of bubbles, but was again countered by dark pulse.

"Shadow punch." Lauren said plainly. Haunter shot out a spectral fist from his disconnected hand, to which prinplup replied with crossing his flippers and using metal claw, blocking the hit. Lauren, looking a little frustrated now, decided to make a more desperate move. "Hypnosis!"

 _Oh, no…_ Niko said. The last time prinplup was the victim of dream eater, even haunter seemed terrified. _Lauren's going all out now…_ He steeled himself, commanding prinplup to simply block the attack by closing his eyes. It didn't seem to work, and prinplup fell backwards, unconscious. "Prinplup wake up!"

"Dream eater!" She commanded. Haunter hesitantly used the attack, invading the penguin's dreams. This time, however, he didn't seem to recoil at all. Rather, the gas pokémon seemed comfortable using the attack on prinplup now. He successfully did so, causing prinplup to twist and turn in his sleep.

"Prinplup! Prinplup wake up!" Niko kept shouting, still worried about the effect it might have. "PRINPLUPPP!"

The penguin shot wide awake, much to Niko's surprise. He quickly got up and stared down haunter with eyes that suggested mal intent. Niko, feeling this fiery passion within prinplup, commanded the penguin to use drill peck.

"Dark pulse!" Lauren commanded. Haunter shot off a dark nexus of energy at prinplup, who ripped through it using drill peck before leaping into the air and successfully landing the attack. Prinplup then used water pulse on haunter, launching the ghost type into the ground.

"Prinplup!" Niko shouted, both of his fists at his side. He thrust one forward. "Use metal claw!"

"Haunter, dark pulse!" Lauren shouted. The metal claw, however, tore through the dark pulse as prinplup dove back to the ground, slashing at haunter before rolling on the ground, landing with both claws behind his back.

"Haunter is unable to battle, prinplup is the winner! Lauren will now send out her final pokémon!" The referee declared.

"I'm counting on you now, girl. Roselia, I choose you!" Lauren shouted, summoning the thorn pokémon. "Let's win this! Use magical leaf!"

"Block them with metal claw!" Niko shouted in an attempt to negate, or at least minimize, the effects of the leaves. It wasn't successful, and he wasn't doing any damage. "Alright, prinplup. Let's take a risk, alright?" Prinplup nodded. "Use drill peck."

"Roselia petal dance!" Lauren commanded. Pink petals erupted under prinplup, catching him in the vortex before he made his move. The penguin was forced back and forth against the petals, which were sharper than they looked. "Now, magical leaf!"

"Jump!" Niko shouted. Using the wind that was forcing him around the vortex, prinplup leapt up through the petal dance and out. As he landed, the magical leaf slashed at him, keeping him down. "Just land this one drill peck, prinplup. You can do it!"

"Magical leaf again!" Lauren commanded. Prinplup continued to charge forward, taking the hits. He eventually got within striking distance of roselia before the thorn pokémon used petal dance once more.

"NOW!" Niko screamed. Prinplup thrust his beak forward, hitting roselia. He crumbled to the ground moments later.

"Prinplup is unable to battle, roselia is the winner! Niko will now send out his final pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Prinplup, I'm so proud of you buddy. Take a good rest, though. Torterra, I choose you!" He smiled at Lauren. "Let's end this, dear."

Lauren nodded. "Alright, but I won't let you win still." She said with a smirk. "Roselia, grass whistle!"

Instantly, torterra crashed onto the ground, asleep. Roselia then used a flurry of moves, rotating between magical leaf and petal dance, in order to do as much damage as possible to torterra. While his pokémon was unconscious, Niko kept trying to wake the continent pokémon up, to no avail.

Niko sighed. "Torterra, you have to get up! Please! If you don't, we _will_ lose. We won't get any better. I know you're there. I know you can hear me. Wake up, and let's prove to the world what we're made of!"

Several seconds later, torterra's eyes slowly opened. He looked up to see a swirling tornado of leaves and petals surrounding him.

"Earthquake!" Niko commanded. Torterra roared in response, shaking the rocky battlefield below and around him, causing roselia to fall on her side. "Now, _run_ at roselia!"

In a first since his evolution, torterra broke out into a full-forced run, the weight of his body keeping the earthquake going as he slammed all four of his feet into the ground in a rhythmic motion. Roselia tried getting back up, but by the time she did, it was too late: torterra was upon her.

"Use crunch!" Niko cried out, thrusting a fist forward. Torterra's mouth opened wide as he began to crunch down on roselia. In retaliation, the thorn pokémon shot a round of magical leaves at torterra to prevent him from continuing, but it didn't seem to work. Torterra was hell-bent on attacking, and did so. He crunched down on roselia with his powerful teeth and jaw, however being careful to not mortally wound roselia, who was—and still is—his good friend. "Finish roselia off with energy ball!"

With roselia still in his mouth, torterra conjured an energy ball and released it, sending both it and roselia out of his mouth. Roselia flew backwards across the field, past Lauren, and into a wall directly below the stands. Sliding down, roselia fell forward onto the ground in defeat.

"Roselia is unable to battle, torterra wins! The victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!" The referee declared, throwing a white flag up in Niko's direction.

Lauren walked over to pick roselia up. "I'm still very proud of you, roselia. You gave it your best, and that's all that either of us could have done." She glanced over at Niko, who was crouched down in front of torterra, rubbing his head. All she could do was smile. To be sure, she was disappointed, but she enjoyed seeing Niko in victory, and the looks on his pokémon's faces when they realized they've won a battle. Turning around towards the tunnel, she elected to give him some time with torterra.

"I know I always say it, but I'm proud of you, buddy." Niko said as he crouched down in front of torterra. "Every battle you make me prouder to call you my pokémon. Please know that. You and everyone else—you did your very best, and that all I'll ever ask from you. Now, let's get going, alright?" He said, returning torterra and standing back up in the middle of the field. Looking around, he noticed Lauren was gone.

He ran out of his end of the tunnel to see his friends and family there, all congratulating them. He hugged and shook people's hands, but couldn't help but think that something was wrong with Lauren. He didn't even see her with their group of friends.

"Have you guys seen Lauren?" Niko asked after hugging Brittany. The brunette shook her head.

"She might want some alone time, Niko. It might be for the best, you know."

Niko nodded. "Anyways, I'm going to go heal up my team. They're exhausted, and I want to have a couple of them continue on with me to the next round."

"Going all out now?" JJ asked.

"Well, I'm going to be using a mix of pokémon. For this battle I preferred to use pokémon that Lauren was familiar with. Since I knew all of her pokémon, it's only fair that she knew mine, too." He then turned towards the Pokémon Center. "But…if you do see her, can you tell her where I am?"

They all nodded, and Niko ran off.

* * *

"All done, Niko!" Nurse Joy said. "And congrats on making it to the quarterfinals! I wish you only the best of luck!"

"Thank you so much. I hope to not get them too roughed up next time." Niko said, standing up and taking the six pokéballs sitting in the tray. As he turned to leave, he saw Lauren there. "Oh…hey there." He walked up to hug her. She returned the hug, and for a moment he could hear sniffles. "Are you alright?"

"You…did…a great job, Niko…" she said through the sniffs. "I'm really…proud of you. Great…battle."

"Hey there." Niko said, letting go of her, and only holding on to her shoulders like he usually did. "Don't be so down on yourself. You did amazing! You almost had me! I'm so proud of the way you battled, and the way your pokémon battled. You need to be proud of yourself, too." He then kissed her forehead.

"Thanks…" she sniffed again. "It's just…losing hurts."

"It does. But whatever you do, don't be like I was when I lost my first Pokémon League. Don't give up. _Never_ give up." Niko said softly. He then leaned in to kiss her lips, feeling the salt from the tears stained on them. "Alright?"

"Mhmm…thanks Niko." Lauren said. "Just hold me, please."

"Alright." Niko said, and hugged her again.


	56. Anger is the strongest poison

**Episode 56: Anger is the strongest poison**

"And now we will be revealing the match-ups for the quarterfinals!" Colton Goodshow stated. The group—minus Niko and Lauren—were sitting in the lobby lounge after having a quick meal. They all looked up at the pairings, and their jaws dropped.

"Oh, no…" Brittany said.

"There's no way." Ian commented.

In the Pokémon Center, Lauren looked up in shock as well. Niko, of all people, was silent.

He was against Hunter.

"Niko…?" Lauren said as she saw her boyfriend walk off out of the Pokémon Center. "Niko!"

He turned to her. "What's up? I have to get going! I'm the second match." He said, and then noticed Lauren's worried face. "Why do you look like that?"

"I'm…worried…you've never had a good interaction with him before. What if he does something to piss you off?"

"He won't. I feel just fine. I need to go back to my room and grab some other pokéballs. I know who I want to use against him." Niko said before turning away and running off. He only had one battle to go before his.

While Niko was off preparing, Lauren returned to the group, all of whom still sitting in the lobby, getting ready to leave for the stadium. Seeing her, Brittany, JJ, and Ian all ran up to her. They all congratulated her on the battle against Niko. But that wasn't what was concerning her.

"I want him to be okay…" She said, looking dour. "What if he loses it again?"

JJ placed a hand on her shoulder. "He won't. Niko can handle this."

"Is he off getting some of his other pokémon?" Fay asked. When Lauren nodded in response, he smiled. "Yeah, Niko can do this, then. If he's choosing who I think he's choosing, then he has a shot." This made Lauren smile a bit.

* * *

"And now for our second match of the quarterfinals! We have Niko from Pallet Town in Kanto and Hunter from Castelia City in Unova!" Colton Goodshow announced. "Both of these trainers have shown incredible battling skills. So we can expect quite the show for you all tonight folks!"

Niko walked onto the battlefield—another grassy one. As soon as he saw his opponent, he got tunnel-vision: all he saw was a tall, black-haired, black-clothed Hunter. He didn't feel angry—he had gotten over how Hunter treated his friends. But he wanted to beat him, and wanted to beat him badly.

The referee explained the rules quickly, almost as if he too felt the tension in the arena. He then shot both flags up to indicate the battle was ready.

"Noctowl, I choose you!" Niko shouted, summoning his trusty owl pokémon.

"Drapion, go!" Hunter said in a plain, but commanding, tone. "Cross poison!"

"Noctowl, retaliate with steel wing!" Niko called out. The owl's wings began to glow bright gray as he used them to block the nasty purple "x" hurdling towards him. Luckily, noctowl was able to block it, and then dove downwards on Niko's command. "He careful, buddy. Drapion is not to be messed with. Take caution, be aware." Noctowl nodded lightly as he focused on drapion every move. Luckily, he managed to slash at the scorpion, to which Niko let out a victorious "yes!"

"Drapion, ice fang." Hunter said coldly. Drapion's tail claw extended outwards to grab noctowl just as he landed the steel wing move. Drapion then extended his tail forward more, with incredible flexibility, and bit down _hard_ on noctowl. The owl cried out, feeling the chilling fangs sink into his body. Noctowl then collapsed onto the ground, struggling to move. "Cross poison."

Once more, drapion cross its arms and unleashed a purple "x" from them. The attack dropped directly onto noctowl, exploding on contact.

"Noctowl is unable to battle! Drapion wins! Niko will send out his second pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Noctowl, return. Thank you for trying, buddy. Glalie, I choose you!" Niko shouted. "Use ice beam!"

"Cross poison!" Hunter said. The two attacks collided in the middle of the field, giving Hunter and drapion some time. "Now, toxic spikes!"

Niko gulped. Lauren's roselia knew toxic spikes. He knew exactly what they did. And he had no way around them. Looking down in anger, he steeled himself again. _I can do this. We can do this_. "Glalie, use double team!"

Hunter raised an eyebrow, somewhat confused by the move. He shook his head either way. "Pin missile."

Drapion widened its claws outward and then slammed them forward, summoning a barrage of bright green missiles, rotating his connected claws to hit each one. Turns out, the real glalie was in the middle and, once he got hit, the duplicates all disappeared. Hunter smirked slightly, and then commanded drapion to use cross poison again.

"Glalie, protect!" Niko called out. Once more, glalie was able to block cross poison, but Niko knew this couldn't go on forever. He had to go on the offensive. "Now, ice beam again! Move forward!" Glalie nodded, charging forward like a bowling ball towards drapion. Once he got close enough, the face pokémon shot directly up into the air and shot out an ice beam at drapion from above.

Hunter sighed, as if almost bored. "Pin missile!"

"Protect!" Niko shouted, but he was too slow. The pin missile was another direct hit, causing glalie to drop to the ground.

"Cross poison again." Hunter commanded. Drapion used one final cross poison up close, hitting glalie directly in the face. The ice type briefly shot back into the air before crashing onto the grass in defeat.

"Glalie is unable to battle, drapion wins! Niko will send out his third pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Prinplup, I choose you!" Niko shouted. He could briefly see Hunter smirk.

"Drapion, return." Hunter said, exchanging pokéballs. "Cacturne, go!" He said, summoning the humanoid cactus-scarecrow mix. "Ingrain!"

Just as prinplup felt the toxic spikes instantly poison him, he also felt vines creep up from under him, wrapping around his feet and quickly sapping his energy.

"Prinplup, metal claw at the vines, now!" Niko shouted. He had good reason to say this—cacturne was rushing down the field, both arms glowing bright green. Fortunately, prinplup cut himself loose in time to respond to cacturne's needle arm with his own metal claw, slashing at his opponent and blocking the attack. "Now, drill peck!"

"Cacturne, cotton spore." Hunter said. The scarecrow pokémon opened its mouth, unleashing small white balls into the air, all of which stuck to prinplup. Fortunately, the penguin managed to land a drill peck at close range, poking the cactus in the chest and knocking it backwards. Now, needle arm again!"

Prinplup—now covered in cotton balls, attempted to retaliate with metal claw, but instead took the attack, feeling the thorny arms slap against his face and knock him to the ground. "Prinplup, use bubblebeam on yourself!" Niko shouted, hoping for a miracle here. He was hoping for a series of miracles, as it turned out. The penguin lowered his head towards his body, blowing off the spores stuck to him. As they left, one by one, the penguin began to feel lighter.

"Ingrain!" Hunter shouted this time. Cacturne's vines crept out from under the grass and pulled prinplup back to the ground, holding him on his back. "Now, needle arm!"

"Drill peck your flipper!" Niko directed, knowing that the move was long enough to reach the vine holding prinplup down. It worked, and the penguin used metal claw to cut his other flipper out and both to repel the needle arm. "Bubblebeam!"

Prinplup blew out a fast stream of bubbles at cacturne's face, knocking the scarecrow pokémon backwards, and giving him enough time to release his feet. Once he did that, he rushed towards the cactus and landed another drill peck to the chest before slashing at cacturne's face with metal claw. Cacturne crashed onto the ground, now unable to get back up.

"Cacturne is unable to battle, prinplup wins! Hunter will send out his next pokémon!" The referee said.

"And in what might be a first here, Hunter has lost a pokémon in battle!" Goodshow said.

"Go Niko!" Lauren shouted from the stands. "Kick his ass!"

Hearing this, Niko smiled. But he pulled out a pokéball and returned prinplup. "You did a great job, buddy. But you need to rest—I'll need you for later. Feraligatr, I choose you!" He shouted, sending out his trusty crocodile pokémon. "Ready to battle!?" Feraligatr turned and growled with pleasure, causing Niko to smile stupidly. "That's right, let's do this. You and me." Feraligatr then felt the toxic spikes, which caused him to cringe a little from the pain.

"Niko's taking this very seriously now." Fay said. "That feraligatr of his is something."

"You would know, wouldn't you?" JJ said, thinking back to feraligatr defeating Fay's charizard. The researcher simply nodded his head, albeit smiling.

"Cacturne, you're pathetic. Honchkrow, go!" Hunter shouted. "Dark pulse!"

"Hydro pump!" Niko shouted. Feraligatr obliged, opening his maw and blasting out a powerful gush of water, enveloping the dark pulse and hitting honchkrow directly. The big boss pokémon reeled back a little, shaking its head. "Now, ice punch!"

"Dodge and use nasty plot." Hunter said. Honchkrow evade feraligatr's attempt at punching it, instead flying around the big jaw pokémon, waiting to strike. "Now, dark pulse!"

Honchkrow cried out loud, conjuring yet another dark pulse, this time hitting feraligatr square in the face. Niko then commanded feraligatr to use whirlpool. With incredible strength and grace, the big jaw pokémon conjured a massive tornado of water above his head and threw it at honchkrow which, admittedly, impressed Hunter somewhat. Honchkrow found itself swirling and crashing around inside the whirlpool before being launch out at an angle. Once the big boss pokémon regained his bearings, Hunter withdrew his pokéball once more.

"Honchkrow, return." He said, pocketing the ball before pulling out yet another. "Lucario, go! Aura sphere!"

"Feraligatr, retaliate with ice punch!" Niko directed. Feraligatr's fist began to freeze in anticipation of the attack. Lucario waited patiently for the right moment, and then released the sphere of pure energy at its opponent. Feraligatr then punches the aura sphere, unleashing the energy stored within and causing it to disperse everywhere. "Hydro pump!"

"Lucario, dragon pulse." Hunter said coldly. The aura pokémon held one hand out and commanded a purple beam of energy that collided with the hydro pump, repelling it until feraligatr gave up on it, at which point so did lucario. "Now, extremespeed and bone rush!"

Niko was surprised at how quickly the aura pokémon moved. One moment, it was on one end of the grassy battlefield, the next it was slapping around feraligatr with a long white bone. Feraligatr struggled to fight back, taking each hit which, along with the poison, was significantly weakening the big jaw pokémon.

"Grab the bone and use ice punch!" Niko shouted, almost angrily. Feraligatr focused for a moment to realize where lucario was relative to him. Then, the next moment he thrust his claw forward and grabbed at the white bone, pulling lucario into him and slamming an ice punch into the aura pokémon's face. "Now, crunch!"

Feraligatr lowered his head and bit down hard on lucario's arm, causing the bone rush to dissolve. The big jaw pokémon then picked lucario up by his teeth and tossed him around, leaving lucario crumbled on the grass a few feet away.

"Great job! Now use whirlpool!" Niko shouted, thrusting a fist forward. Once more feraligatr conjured a swirling torrent of water above him before launching it downwards upon lucario, engulfing the aura pokémon in it. Once lucario was tossed around enough, feraligatr reached in, grabbed the fighting type, and threw him back onto the ground.

"Dragon pulse!" Hunter shouted, with authority this time. Niko actually flinched; it was more frightening than he would have expected. Seconds later, feraligatr was hit in the jaw by the purple pulse of draconic energy, falling backwards onto the grass. "Now, aura sphere!"

"Roll out of the way!" Niko shouted at the last moment. Feraligatr did so, finding himself easily able to get back up that way. "Now, use hydro pump!"

Feraligatr unleashed another powerful gush of water at lucario, quickly overwhelming the aura pokémon, who collapsed onto one knee. Niko then directed feraligatr to use ice punch, which put lucario in its place.

"Lucario is unable to battle, feraligatr is the winner! Hunter will now send out his next pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Go Niko!" Lauren shouted happily. "He can do it! They're tied now!" At this point, everyone was happy with the results, and they all deeply believed that Niko finally had his shot at putting Hunter in his place.

"Lucario, I expected better from you. You have failed me. Drapion, go!" Hunter said coldly. Niko could make out a frustrated expression from Hunter. This is clearly not how he expected the battle to go. "Use cross poison!"

"Feraligatr, ice punch it!" Niko shouted. The big jaw pokémon was ready with a chilled fist when, just before the cross poison hit, the poison from the toxic spikes struck once more, forcing feraligatr to kneel down, and letting the cross poison strike him in the face with enough force to knock him on his back. "Feraligatr…?" Niko asked, now a little worried.

"Pin missile." Hunter said. Drapion once more clashed its claws together, unleashing a series of bright green missiles at feraligatr, quickly overwhelming the big jaw pokémon. Just then, the poison kicked in again, causing feraligatr—who had just gotten back up—to collapse once more, this time face-first.

"Feraligatr, we have to do this!" Niko pleaded. "Come one…we've been through worse!" He balled his hands into fists. He was angry now. Feraligatr was, without a doubt, one of his strongest pokémon. They had been through too much together for the big jaw pokémon to claim defeat now.

Fortunately for Niko, feraligatr did get back up, albeit slowly. But Hunter wasn't having any of it. He commanded another cross poison from drapion, which ended feraligatr on the spot.

"Feraligatr is unable to battle, drapion wins! Niko will send out his fourth pokémon!" The referee declared.

His fists shaking, Niko pulled out feraligatr's pokéball and returned him. "You d-did great, buddy. Thank you." He reached for another pokéball—a different-feeling one. His first. "Venusaur, I choose you!" He shouted, this time with passion.

"Hmm. I see." Hunter said. "Drapion, return. Toxicroak, go!" Hunter said calmly.

"Oh man…" JJ said. "That toxicroak…is something else…" No one else replied, all too focused on the battle in front of them.

"Use sucker punch." Hunter said coldly. The toxic mouth pokémon stood there and waited.

"Razor leaf!" Niko shouted. Venusaur summoned a flurry of razor-sharp leaves that all managed to hit toxicroak. However, this allowed the amphibian to charge forward and use sucker punch, slamming both claws at venusaur's face. Venusaur shook his head, trying to make the pain from the sucker punch go away. "Use solarbeam!"

"Toxicroak, x-scissor!" Hunter commanded in an aggressive tone. Toxicroak leapt into the air, crossing its arms before landing on top of venusaur and slashing at it. Just then, toxicroak noticed the energy building up on venusaur's flower, and leapt off in anticipation of the attack, eventually ducking low to the ground to evade the beam of energy. "Good. Now use sucker punch again!"

Toxicroak turned back around and bounded towards venusaur. In two quick steps, the toxic mouth pokémon was able to clear the distance between itself and venusaur, striking the seed pokémon with its claws once more, but only barely scratching him. Venusaur steeled himself, trying to maintain his composure during the battle.

The entire time, Niko believed that venusaur was his one shot at toppling toxicroak—Hunter's strongest pokémon, as far as he knew. But the problem was, venusaur wasn't able to hit anything. Wait…

"Stun spore!" Niko shouted Venusaur's flower rustled a little, emitting yellow spores from its top and spraying over the grassy field. Toxicroak back-flipped through the field, constantly evading the stun spore until it was out of reach. That's when venusaur used solarbeam once more, this time aiming to hit.

And it did—toxicroak took the hit, but then Hunter commanded it to use sucker punch. The toxic mouth pokémon bounded forward once more to use the attack, slapping venusaur across the face for a third time. Niko then saw Hunter smirk, almost like he knew exactly what he was doing.

"Poison jab." Toxicroak's hand began to glow a nasty purple. The poison type then slapped venusaur across the face with it. "And again." Toxicroak continued, poison jabbing venusaur before using x-scissor with enough force to _move_ venusaur backwards.

Venusaur lowered his head to the ground, unsure of what to do. Niko felt the same way. Here he was: with one of his strongest pokémon, his best friend, and unable to do _anything_ to toxicroak. Niko felt useless; venusaur felt useless. That's when it ended.

"Toxicroak, x-scissor!" Hunter shouted, thrusting a finger forward. Toxicroak used the move one final time, finally hitting venusaur enough for the seed pokémon to collapsed onto the ground. "Well done."

"Venusaur is unable to battle, toxicroak wins! Niko will send out his next pokémon!" The referee declared.

"Wait…venusaur could fall to that thing?" Jake asked in utter disbelief. "But venusaur is also a poison type!"

Fay scratched his chin in curiosity. "That toxicroak is powerful enough as it is. We know how much damage it can do to pokémon that aren't poison type. So it's easy enough to say that toxicroak—and Hunter—needed to keep striking at venusaur, hoping to either break its spirit by dodging most of its attacks, or by brute force."

"Or both." Niko's Dad said. "His venusaur is, and always has been, a very proud pokémon, mainly of his relationship to Niko. Those two have a special bond, and venusaur has never wanted to let his trainer down. It's likely that, due to his most powerful moves missing constantly, that he gave up, and so did Niko."

"Or the other way around: Niko gave up, and thus so did venusaur."

"There's no way." Jake said. "Niko doesn't give up."

"Venusaur, return." Niko said solemnly. "Don't let it get you down, pal. We'll bounce back, I promise." He put away venusaur's pokéball in exchange for another. "Prinplup, I choose you!" He shouted in a commanding tone. "Let's do this! Use water pulse!"

Hunter showed no emotion at the sight of his former pokémon. "Toxicroak, finish him. Now."

As if knowing exactly what to do, toxicroak burst forward, claws glowing bright purple. It then leapt into the air and slashed from above at prinplup, causing the water pulse to burst and then using the resulting splash as a veil that it used to surprise prinplup. Toxicroak slashed downwards on prinplup, launching the penguin not just into the ground, but also across the grass, ripping up thousands of small blades of grass in the wake of the impact.

"Keep going." Hunter said. Toxicroak then jumped forward once more, slashing down on prinplup with x-scissor. Prinplup fortunately blocked the attack with metal claw, but quickly realized he was overpowered. Nonetheless, he didn't give in.

"Keep it up, prinplup! Never give up!" Niko shouted, a fiery passion in his voice. He knew now that winning against Hunter would be a steep uphill battle, if not impossible. But he at least wanted to bring toxicroak down with him. Hit Hunter right where it hurt.

Prinplup then lurched his head forward and slammed a drill peck into toxicroak's lower jaw, nearly hitting the red sac on its neck. Angered, toxicroak slapped prinplup across the face with a poison jab while holding half of the x-scissor still in lock with the penguin's metal claw. The poison jab was enough to force prinplup to let go, allowing the x-scissor to also land.

Toxicroak leapt backwards, landing safely on the grass while prinplup slowly got back up.

"Is that all you've got, Niko? Some pathetic penguin? Come on…you've participated in _so many_ Pokémon Leagues now—you CAN do better, right?" Hunter shouted across the field. Seeing Niko seething, Hunter continued. "You seem angry. I get that—I was angry with that penguin, too. That's why I let it go—it didn't deserve to continue fighting with me."

"YOU ABUSED IT!" Niko screamed back. "YOU DEMENTED MAN!" Anger surging through his body, Niko struggled to remain calm anymore. "YOU'E GOING TO LOSE, HUNTER! RIGHT. NOW."

"Oh?" Hunter asked in mock surprise. "Try me, then. C'mon, let's see what you and your precious penguin 'buddy' can do, then."

"Prinplup, water pulse. NOW." Niko demanded. Prinplup—also beyond angry—conjured a massive glowing orb of water and launched it across the field towards toxicroak, who leapt out of the way before bounding back towards prinplup and using sucker punch to slap prinplup across the face. The penguin instantly fell to the ground, knocked unconscious from the blow.

"Prinplup is unable to battle, toxicroak wins!" The referee said, he too looking surprised by the happenings of the battle. "Niko will send out his final pokémon."

Niko hands were shaking vigorously now. His vision slightly blurred from the overwhelming emotion he was now feeling. It wasn't about victory, or winning the Pokémon League. He wanted to hurt Hunter. He wanted that man to feel pain. Lifting his head up, he pulled out his final pokéball.

"Rampardos, go." Niko said softly and decisively. The dinosaur erupted onto the field, roaring out. He then looked down at toxicroak standing in the middle of the field. "Let's defeat toxicroak. Use zen headbutt."

Rampardos lowered his head low to the ground before bursting forward, his powerful legs allowing him to move at the speed that he did. Rampardos also felt Niko's anger. He didn't know exactly what happened to make his trainer so angry, but he felt it, and wanted to correct it.

Toxicroak easily evaded the attack before jumping towards the rock type and using sucker punch on it, knocking rampardos onto the ground. But the dinosaur quickly got back up and unleashed a flamethrower on toxicroak, who managed to once more dodge the move and use poison jab to slap rampardos across the face. However, rampardos was quick enough to use flamethrower just as toxicroak was landing back on the ground, engulfing the toxic mouth pokémon in flames. In retaliation, toxicroak turned back around and leapt onto rampardos to use poison jab, slashing the dinosaur in the back before leaping back off.

Rampardos ran around, roaring in pain from the attack. Out of anger, the rock type turned back and charged at toxicroak with zen headbutt. When toxicroak managed to dodge the move again, rampardos repeated the attempt. This continued on for several more attempts until toxicroak leapt into the air and landed an x-scissor on the glowing blue head, disrupting the psychic move and forcing rampardos to a halt.

"Ancientpower." Niko demanded. He tried not to say much, out of fear that he might snap again. In front of his family, his friends, Lauren, and the entire region, Niko didn't want to lose his temper.

Rampardos then glared at toxicroak, and then Hunter. Pressing down on the grass underneath his claws, he calmed his mind once more, just as slowking had taught him. Sparks began to flare from his shiny red head before erupting into a bright blue color. Rampardos then burst forward, his powerful legs not giving in to exhaustion.

He managed to hit toxicroak. Upon impact, the poison and fighting type was launched backwards across the field, rolling to Hunter's feet, but not yet defeated.

"Get up. Now." Hunter said, lightly kicking toxicroak in the back, which was enough to get the amphibian back on its feet. "Now, finish rampardos."

Toxicroak charged across the grassy battlefield, claws glowing bright purple, poison surging through them. Rampardos attempted to slow toxicroak's advances with ancientpower, but the toxic mouth pokémon shattered each one in turn. Then, as rampardos was about to slam his head down on toxicroak, it slid underneath rampardos and stabbed its claw upwards, sinking the claw into rampardos' skin and just as quickly releasing before leaping out of the way. Rampardos raised his head to the sky to roar out, but then toxicroak stabbed him a second time in the lower stomach, this time turning it into a slash before releasing.

A primal scream rang through the stadium. Rampardos then crashed onto the ground, and time seemed to stop for Niko.


	57. The Pokémon Center

**Episode 57: The Pokémon Center**

Niko fell to his knees at the sight. Rampardos was just stabbed in the gut. _Twice_. As soon as he saw the referee running toward rampardos, he knew the problem was serious.

He scrambled back onto his feet and burst into a sprint to get to his pokémon. Falling to the ground in front of the dinosaur, he saw rampardos unconscious and the referee yelling for a stretcher. Moments later, two paramedics and two machoke rushed over, hoisting rampardos onto the stretcher and carrying him off. Niko then got back up and ran after them, screaming his pokémon's name.

Back in the stands, the group was shocked. Lauren was on the verge of tears, and leaned over to Brittany for comfort. JJ, Fay, and Ian had a mixture of dumbfounded and anger written on their faces. Suddenly, Jake leapt out of his seat and ran out of the stands, with Lauren, Brittany, and Niko's parents following closely behind. Just as JJ was about to leave, he saw Hunter walk towards toxicroak and say something that sounded similar to "good job."

"Rampardos! Rampardos!" Niko shouted, his eyes watering, a vortex of emotions swallowing him whole. They finally made it to the local Pokémon Center, and Nurse Joy immediately took rampardos into an emergency room, asking for the dinosaur's pokéball. Niko searched his pocket for it and, after dropping all of his other ones in the process, managed to find it. "Is he going to be okay!? Tell me!"

Nurse Joy nodded, although her expression didn't suggest the same. She then turned and ran into the room, shutting the door behind Niko. Once more, he fell to his knees, unable to comprehend what was happening.

 _How damaged is rampardos? What did toxicroak do to him?_ Niko thought, unable to consider any other question at the time. Time seemed to once again slow down, for it felt like he was sitting on his knees for hours before a hand lightly touched his shoulder.

He didn't look up to see who it was until he saw Lauren's wet image in his peripherals. He looked away, wiping tears off of his face. He then noticed she left, leaving him be.

"Niko…you have to get up." He heard his Dad say. Niko simply shook his head. He didn't want to move. He didn't feel like he _could_ move. "Niko. Move!" He shouted, and Niko then looked up to see other doctors running through the hallways, their assistants closely behind. Niko quickly got up and out of the way before collapsing onto a cushioned bench against the wall.

He then looked up and noticed his parents, Jake, JJ, Fay, Brittany, Ian, and Lauren all looking at him with worried glances. He felt embarrassed, for a number of reasons.

"Go away." He finally said. When no one budged, he repeated. "GO AWAY!" He shouted.

"Niko, we're not leaving you." JJ said softly. Fay then touched his friend's shoulder, and the curly blonde tossed it aside. "What? We need to be there for him!"

"Now's not the time. Come on, JJ." Fay said, and JJ acquiesced. They were followed by Ian, Brittany and, after several more looks from Niko, Lauren as well.

"You too." Niko said, addressing his family.

"Niko, we have to stay with you." His Mom said.

"No. You don't. I want to be alone right now." He said quietly.

"What was that dear?" Mom said in a soft, sympathetic tone.

"I said I want to be alone right now!" Niko spat back.

"Don't talk to your mother like that!" Dad shouted before having a coughing fit. But at the urging of his wife and second son, he too acquiesced and left Niko alone.

* * *

Sitting in the lounge, the group sat in relative silence. Brittany was trying to calm Lauren down; Fay was absentmindedly playing with his coat; JJ was watching togepi run around; and Ian was leaning forward with his head resting in his hands.

"I hope Niko is okay…" Lauren finally said, her voice heavy.

"I hope so too…don't worry, though. Everything will be fine."

"What if he's actually mad at me…" Lauren asked, much to everyone's surprise. "What? I'm being serious."

"You're his girlfriend!" JJ said aloud. "And you did literally nothing wrong! If anyone should be ashamed, it's _him_." JJ said, lifting his hand and pointing at Hunter, who was walking through towards the entrance to the courtyard. "HEY, YOU COWARD! GET BACK HERE!" JJ said, getting up and storming off towards Hunter. Eventually the black-haired man turned around, noticing JJ. For the first time since the Tag Tournament, the difference in heights was stark—Hunter towered over JJ.

"Oh, look. It's Niko's posse. What're you going to do to me?" Hunter asked coldly. "Oh, and how's your shroomish doing these days? Has it even seen a battle since?"

"It _has_ , as a matter of fact."

"Oh, against what? A metapod? Did it lose to the metapod?" Hunter said mockingly.

"Don't talk to him like that, you worthless trash!" Lauren shouted back.

"Oh, it's Niko little cheerleader. Sorry to hear you lost. Finally nice to see that you're even weaker than he is." He walked up to her. "I wonder what it would have been like if you had battled me instead of him. Maybe that infernape of yours would be the one in the Pokémon Center, clinging to life just like that useless rampardos? Please, you all disappoint me. I entered this league for a challenge, and Niko was the closest thing to that, and I still swept him."

"But you have nothing close to the relationship Niko has with his pokémon." Fay said, finally speaking up. "I've seen how you treat your pokémon. Like tools. Like machines." He was now standing up. "But you will never be the best if that's your outlook. And that's why Niko is a better trainer, and a better man than you'll ever be."

"Oh, really then? Explain to me why Niko only barely beat two of my six pokémon in battle? If he's so good, then shouldn't he have done better? I won, fair and square, and he's off crying like a baby over some pokémon that can't win against anything." Hunter then eyed Fay curiously. "And who _are_ you, anyway?"

"Niko's friend. And rival, too."

"Oh? Right…you're the one that lost to him back at the Silver Conference. I remember watching that match. Hard to believe Niko seemed good back then. And then he lost to a little kid right after that." Fay sat down, not willing to continue the conversation. Hunter was about to turn and leave when he felt something rapping against his feet. Looking down, he saw togepi slapping his boots. "What the hell is this thing?" Hunter asked angrily, kicking togepi lightly, which was enough to cause the spike ball pokémon to roll around. Frightened, togepi began to cry loudly.

"You monster…you don't kick pokémon like that." JJ said, shooting Hunter an angry look before kneeling down and picking togepi up. "There there, you'll be fine, alright?"

"Then tell that ugly pokémon to not pick a fight with me. I can and will do worse." Hunter said, leaving the lobby for the courtyard.

"Togepi, I'm so sorry, I'm—what?" JJ asked, watching as togepi began to glow. The body of the spike ball pokémon started growing, sprouting angelic wings and a longer neck that shaped into an egg-shaped head with soft, white spikes on top. On her body, she maintained the red and blue speckled pattern. She was roughly two feet in height now, and sat in JJ's arms, looking up and staring at her trainer. Shocked and curious, Brittany pulled out her pokédex:

" _Togetic, the happiness pokémon. Normal and flying type. To share its happiness, it flies around the world seeking kind-hearted people_."

"Why…why did she evolve?" JJ asked, looking confused.

"Because togepi evolves when it is happiest with its trainer." An unfamiliar, but friendly, voice rang out in the halls. JJ looked up to see a portly man standing near him. He had sunglasses, curly brown hair, and a blue floral shirt on with white shorts underneath. "Apologies if I'm intruding, I just noticed the shining light of evolution and thought I'd stop by to talk to you all." He turned immediately to Lauren. "You! Blue-haired girl! What's your name again?"

"Lauren…" She replied with suspicion.

"Ah, Lauren. Gotcha. I'm Scott! Pleasure to meet you." He extended his hand out, and Lauren reluctantly took it. "You're probably wondering 'who the hell is this guy?' Right?" Lauren nodded. "Well, I am the owner of the Battle Frontier. Ever heard of it?"

"Yes." Fay interjected. "It's a series of different battling arenas where trainers go to improve their skills, right?"

"Something of the sort. Each Battle Frontier facility has a different type of battling style. Anyways, I own them in the Hoenn and Kanto regions, and in the past few years have opened one up on the Island just north of here, which I have dubbed 'Battle Island.'" He looked back at Lauren. "I've noticed you and—what was his name? Nick? Niko? Ah, whatever—I've noticed you two battling so far, and I am very impressed. I'm basically here to recruit trainers to come compete on Battle Island. Would either of you be interested?"

Lauren seemed a little taken aback. "Uh…when do we leave? Where do we go?"

"Oh! The closest entryway to Battle Island would be from Snowpoint City. I can shuttle you and your friend over there in a jiffy, and then you can be off to Battle Island from there."

"I would like some time to think about it. And Niko is actually at the Pokémon Center right now. His pokémon just got really hurt in a battle."

"Right, I saw that. I hope everything goes well. Anyways! Let us three meet back in this lobby same time tomorrow. Sound good?"

"Sure, thank you, Scott." Lauren said, shaking Scott's hand and watching as he walked off at a fast pace. She then turned to her friends with a crazed look on her face. "What the heck?"

"What do you want to do?" Brittany asked, sitting back down with Lauren.

"I don't know…I want to, but I don't know if Niko would be up for it, you know?" She sighed. "What if he gives up?"

"He's not going to give up!" JJ said aloud, togetic swirling around him, clearly overjoyed by her newfound ability to fly.

"But he just might!" Lauren spat back. "Anyways, I'll go if he does."

"And we'll go if you do." Brittany said, eying JJ, who nodded curtly. "We're in this together."

They continued to sit in the lobby for some time. Eventually, Ian had left, and Fay was about to leave to his hotel room, as it was getting dark.

* * *

Niko watched rampardos sleeping in the window. After a few hours of surgery, the headbutt pokémon was going to be fine, according to Nurse Joy and her team.

For the past several hours he waited outside, contemplating the day. It began with him defeating Lauren in the top 16 match, before losing to Hunter in the top 8. _I lost. Again. In the quarterfinals._ He thought to himself before shaking his head. _No. My pokémon lost. To a monster. A subhuman piece of trash_. Niko wanted to scream as loud as he could and release his emotions. But he couldn't. He didn't want to wake rampardos up, and he certainly didn't want to get kicked out of the Pokémon Center.

So he walked back to his bench and sat back down. Half an hour later he felt something sit down next to him. Turning to his left, he saw Lauren sitting there, a smile on her face.

"Hi." She said softly.

"Hey." Niko said, looking away. "What's up?"

"How are you doing?" She asked.

"Could be better. You?"

"Really? Just 'could be better?'" Lauren asked. "How is rampardos?"

Niko sighed heavily. "He could be better, but he is recovering. He's asleep right now. Nurse Joy told me he'd be ready to go sometime tomorrow, but she wants to make sure the recovery process is working the way it's supposed to."

"What…" Lauren gulped. "What exactly happened to him?"

"Hunter's toxicroak stabbed him in the rib with poison jab, and then cut deep into his lower torso, nearly piercing the stomach. Nurse Joy was surprised—had it been any higher, it might have been a fatal wound."

Lauren leaned in close to Niko. "I know you don't want to think about anything else, but I have something to tell you."

Niko looked down at her, and Lauren explained the brief meeting with Scott and the concept of Battle Island. Niko was then silent for a while, pondering it all. _Am I ready to get back into battling? Can I continue doing this?_ "What do you want to do?"

"I'll go if you do. And so will Brittany, and JJ. Ian can't—he said he's going back to Johto for the summer. And obviously Fay is too busy, from what he said. Your family wasn't around."

"Well, if you want to, then I will too."

"No, Niko. Do what _you_ want to do. Not what I want to do." Lauren said, in a scolding tone.

"Fine then. I'll do it. I want to beat Hunter. And if I need to get stronger, then this sounds like the best thing to do to achieve that." He kissed her on the forehead. "Thanks for being here, by the way."

Lauren smiled. "Anytime, Niko."

The following morning, Niko woke up early to go back down to the Pokémon Center, completely ignoring the battles raging in the stadium. The rest of his group was off watching, but all he cared about was seeing rampardos.

Luckily, as soon as he got there, he saw Nurse Joy helping the dinosaur walk back out. Through the roof in happiness, Niko fast-walked over to his pokémon. "Rampardos…" Niko said, leaning in for a hug. Rampardos attempted to return the hug, instead just resting his head on Niko's shoulders. "I was so worried about you. I…I don't know what I would have done if I lost you." He said, tears running down his face. "I can't fathom the idea of losing a pokémon, at all."

Rampardos nodded, growling softly. Nurse Joy then gave Niko some pills that the headbutt pokémon would need to take in order to make a full recovery, and placed a strict ban on battling for a month. Niko nodded in agreement—the last thing he wanted was for rampardos to battle again anytime soon.

Niko walked out into the courtyard, with rampardos walking slowly at his side, when he saw his friends and family standing there. All of Niko's Sinnoh pokémon were there as well, cheering on their teammate as he made his way down the field. Slowking was the first to greet rampardos, and with a hug. Niko could have sworn he saw the rock type shed a brief tear. He then turned to his family.

"About to head out?" He asked.

"Yes, we have to get home soon. Your father has a doctor's appointment, and we want to get ready for that." Niko's Mom said.

"Why, is something wrong?" Niko inquired.

"Oh, nothing at all, son. Just a check-up. I haven't had one in years, actually. But I've had this nasty coughing fit that I need to deal with." He then placed his hand on his son's shoulders. "But I did hear about this 'Battle Island' deal. I encourage you to do it. And to win, with rampardos and all of the pokémon you've done such a good job of raising." He then broke into a sincere smile. "I'm very proud of you, son. Every single day."

Niko nodded, unsure of how to respond. "Thanks, Dad. I hope I can continue to do that."

"I know you will." He was then replaced by Niko's Mom.

"Niko, keep on fighting and getting better. In my mind, you're already a Pokémon Master."

"Heh, thanks Mom. Safe travels back, alright?" He hugged his mom, who had a hard time letting go. Once she did, Jake took her place. "Hey, pal."

"Good luck on Battle Island. I'm going back to Kanto. I'm not sure where I want to go next, but I want time to figure it out."

"And you will. As you know, it always took us summers to figure out our next move." He said, turning to Brittany, Fay, and JJ. "Anyways, I'm very proud of you. Hopefully one day we can have a real, official battle."

"I hope so." Jake said, clasping his older brother's hand before leaving with their parents. Next was Ian.

"So, I've already said good-bye to everyone, but I have to get back to Johto. Let's keep in touch, man." He said, bringing Niko into a hug. "And I want to actually battle you, for real."

"You got it. When we're done with Battle Island, we'll get in touch. See ya." Niko said, also shaking Ian's hand.

Before Niko turned to face his pokémon again, Fay grabbed his shoulder. "Niko, I know you probably are upset right now, but never let this get you down. You've bounced back from some pretty bad losses. You'll get through this." Niko didn't want to think much about his loss to Hunter, but he knew Fay was right about it, as he usually was. "I believe in you, man." He said before shaking Niko's hand. "Best of luck."

"Heh, thanks man. Hope to see you soon." He said, and the four waved farewell to Fay as well. He finally turned to his pokémon, JJ, Brittany, and Lauren. "Well?"

"Well what?" Lauren asked teasingly.

"Guess we need to go tell Scott."

"Tell Scott _what_?" Lauren asked, continuing the teasing.

"Lauren…we're going to Battle Island. And together," He turned to his five Sinnoh pokémon. "We're going to win it all there!"

His pokémon all cheered as he thrust a fist into the air. Lauren, Brittany, and JJ all did the same.

* * *

 **Author's note: Another season done! I hope you've enjoyed this one! As I said before, Sinnoh is one of my favorite regions, and I was really hoping that this season of Through the Years would reflect that. I'd like to think that it did, and I hope you enjoyed reading.**

 **Now, the next season-Battle Island-will be a relatively short one, and I will begin writing that one pretty soon (like, in the next couple of days). So look out for that! It's going to be an intense season, at least i'm hoping it will be, because it sets up for the next arc in Niko's journeys.**

 **Lastly, as usual, a special thanks to those who followed, favorited, and reviewed: Eeveefan1290, Light Flame Blast, Mega Espeon, Trin-Miller, cookiecastlequeen, snoidragonz, athios, Jolteon2404, MajorBrony95, Poosa-erd, TimeLordMaster108, cheesboy8, and the hidden bird. It's readers like you that keep me posting, and so I appreciate the comments, reviews, criticisms, etc. whenever I can get them. As a reminder, this whole story is an exercise for me to become a better writer, and I have learned more in this past season than I have in the others.**

 **So, thanks!**

 **-Evanibble**


End file.
